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NENTUCKY BAPTIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY 


W. J. McGLOTHLIN, D. D. 


‘I. Sketch of the Life and Times of William Hickman, Sr., by W. P 
Harvey, D. D. 

II. Subscription Paper of South Elkhorn Baptist Church, 1798. 

Ill. A History of the Western Baptist Theological Institute of Coving- 
ton, Ky., by W. C. James, Th. D. 


1910 
BAPTIST WORLD PUBLISHING CO. 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 


Preface 


The following documents are offered to the public by The 
Kentucky Baptist Historical Society as the first of a series of 
similar papers illustrative of Kentucky Baptist history, which 
the Society hopes to publish from time to time. The first is a 
sketch of the life and work of one of the most important, if 
not the most important, of the pioneer Baptist preachers of the 
state. 

The second isa reprint of one page of a subscription paper 
for a pastor’s support in 1798. It is valuable as a witness to 
the religious customs of those early days. Three features of it 
are striking. One is the small amount of money and the 
large amount of provisions, etc., subscribed; another is the 
subscription of thirty-six gallons of whiskey to the pastor’s 
. support by three ‘different brethren, who were apparently dis- 
tillers. A third is the large number of brethren who could 
not write their names and therefore made their crosses. This 
church and pastor were no worse and no better than others of 
the Baptist and other denominations. As compared with the 
present, nothing could more strikingly illustrate the immense 
progress which has been made in these 112 years in temper- 
ance reform. 

The third paper is the presentation of a forgotten chapter 
in Kentucky Baptist history, sad but instructive. Few insti- 
tutions have opened with brighter promise or closed in such 
bitter failure. It is well to have its history preserved to us. 

W. J. M. 
Louisville, Ky., 1910. 


Skeich of the Lite and Cimes of 
William Gickman, Sr. 


BY W. P. HARVEY, D.D. 


Did Mr. Hickman preach the first sermon preached in 
Kentucky? . The Baptists of this state celebrated their cen- 
tennial in 1876. In the genesis of this movement it was be 
lieved that he did. 

What I say on this subject is based on the autobiography 
of William Hickman. 

His name and picture graced our centennial certificates. 
The claim was based on Mr. Lewis Collins’ “History of Ken- 
tucky,” published in 1847, page 112: “‘ William Hickman as the 
first preacher in Kentucky claims our first attention.” Again 
he says, volume 1, page 416: “In 1776 William Hickman 
commenced here his labors in the Gospel ministry. He was 
the first to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ in the 
valleys of Kentucky. 

I now quote from A. C. Graves, D.D., “LaRue’s Minis- 
try of Faith,” page 85: “Harrodsburg is the first settlement in 
Kentucky, and is also the oldest preaching point in the state. 
The first sermon ever preached in Kentucky was preached by 
William Hickman.” Dr. Graves afterwards corrected this state- 
ment in a newspaper article. 


HICKMAN NOT FIRST PREACHER. 


William Hickman was not the first man who preached in 
this state. Collins’ history, volume 1, page 441: “The Rev. 
John Lythe, of the Church of England, came early to Ken- 
tucky.” Col. Henderson’s convention met at Boonesboro, May 
23, 1775, to organize proprietary government of lands he 
bought from the Indians. Sunday following, Collins’ ‘History 


6 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


of Kentucky,” volume 2, pages 500 and 501: “Speaking of a 
large tree, Henderson says: ‘This elm is to be our church, coun- 
cil chamber, ete.’ Again: ‘Divine services for the first time in 
Kentucky was performed by Rev. John Lythe, of the Church 
of England.’ ” 

G. W. Ranck’s “History of Boonesboro”, published by Fil- 
son Club, page 30, agrees with the above statement. The sermon 
preached on Sunday after Henderson’s convention adjourned 
was eleven months before Mr. Hickman was in Kentucky and 
heard Tinsley preach at Harrodsburg. 

In preparing my centennial address that was delivered at 
the centennial meeting at Harrodsburg, May, 1876, I borrowed 
a copy of “The Life and Travels of Wiliam Hickman,” from 
his grandson, W. 8. Hickman. I quote from pages 8 and 9: 
“We got to Harrodsburg the first day of April, 1776. Myself, 
Brother Thomas Tinsley, my old friend, Mr. Morton, took our 
lodging at Mr. John Gordon’s, four miles from town. 

“Mr. Tinsley was a good old preacher, Mr. Morton a good, 
pious Presbyterian, and love and friendship abounded among 
us. We went nearly every Sunday to town to hear Mr.Tinsley 
preach. JI generally concluded his meetings. One Sunday 
morning, sitting at the head of a spring at this place, he laid 
his Bible on my thigh and said, ‘You must preach to-day.’ He 
said if I did not, he would not. It set me in a tremor. I 
knew he would not draw back. I took the book and turned 
to the twenty-third chapter of Numbers and tenth verse: ‘Let 
me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like 
his.’ 

“T spoke fifteen or twenty minutes, a good deal scared, 
thinking if I left amy gaps down he would put them up. He 
followed me with a good sermon, but never mentioned my 
blunders.” 

Mr. Hickman was not a preacher when he first came to 
Kentucky on his tour of observation. I quote from Dr. J. B. 
Jeter’s History of Baptists, according to Spencer’s “History of 
Kentucky”, volume 1, pages 12 and 13. Virginia Baptist 
Preachers, First Series, page 240: “William Hickman after 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 7 


making a profession of religion visited the state of Kentucky. 
He went there in 1776, according to Elder John Taylor’s ‘His- 
tory of Ten Churches’. He began to preach while he was 
there.” 

Daniel Boone was in Kentucky, May, 1769. ’Squire Boone, 
his brother, came soon afterwards. The brothers met accident- 
ally January 1, 1770. They were natives of Pennsylvania, but 
came here from North Carolina. 

According to Asplund’s Register, there were 309 Baptists 
in this state in 1774. ’Squire Boone, a Baptist minister, was 
in Kentucky five years before Mr. Lythe. There may have 
been Baptist preaching before Henderson’s convention, but if 
there was there is no authentic record of the fact. 

Before returning ‘Life and Travels” to W. 8. Hickman I 
had it copied with his consent. 

Dr. Catheart of Philadelphia proposed to buy it from me. 
J declined to sell, and gave it to him to ‘keep it in a fire-proof 
vault” on condition that I could get it, if I ever needed it. 

When I learned that I was expected to prepare this paper, 
I wrote for it. The answer came: “It was lost when the 
American Baptist Publication Society building was destroyed 
by fire.” By the kindness of Mrs. Josephine Hickman Walker 
of Denver, Colorado, I borrowed the original copy, the only one 
in existence that I know of. By the use of “Life and Travels’”— 
Mr. Hickman’s autobiography—lI have been enabled to correct 
current history in regard to him being the first man who 
preached in Kentucky. 


EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


“Tife and Travels,’ published 1828, two years before his 
death. Republished 1873. Contains thirty-five pages, and 
about 12,500 words. ‘A short account of my life and travels 
for more than fifty years, a professed servant of Jesus Christ. 
To which is added a narrative of the rise and progress of 
religion in the early settlement of Kentucky, giving account of 
the difficulties we had to endure, etc.” 


8 WILLIAM HICKMAN, 


He was born in the county of King and Queen, Virginia, 
February 4, 1747. His father’s name was Thomas Hickman, 
and his mother’s name was Sarah Sanderson. “Both parents 
died young, leaving their orphan son and daughter to be cared 
for by their loving grandmother.” 


His “chance for education was very small, having but little 
time to go to school.” He “could read but little, and hardly 
write any.” At the age of 14 he was put to a trade with John 
Shackleford. Of his environments he says: 


“T found them notoriously wicked. I soon fell into evil 
habits, for master, mistress, children, apprea and Negroes 
were all alike.” 

His grandmother had given him a Bible with a charge not 
to neglect reading it, as he was accustomed to do when he was 
with her. After a while he neglected it, and left off praying, 
and learned to curse and swear. He says: “I went often to 
church to hear the parson preach (the Episcopal Rector) when 
he was sober enough to go through his discourse.” “Life and 
Travels,” pp. 1 and 2. 

In 1770 he married Miss Shackleford, his master’s daughter. 
“She was fond of mirth and dancing.” 

About this time he heard of the “New Lights,” as the 
Baptists converted under Whitefield’s preaching were called. 
(Spencer’s History of Baptists of Kentucky, Vol. 1, p. 153). 
“Curiosity led him to go quite a distance to hear these babblers 
preach,” (“Life and Travels,” p. 2). He had said “that he 
was sure they were false prophets, and hoped he should never 
hear one.” He went and “heard John Waller and James 
Childs, and the people relating their Christian experiences. 
God’s power attended the word, numbers falling, and some 
convulsed, and others crying for mercy.” He went home 
“heavy hearted”. He told his wife what he had seen and 
heard. ‘She was disgusted for fear I would be dipped, too”. 
“She tried to keep me from going the next day to see the con- 
verts baptized.” He did go, and tells “a good many tears 
dropped at the water and not a few from my eyes” (“Life and 
Travels”, p. 3). 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. ° 9 


He and his wife moved to Cumberland County. His serious 
impression passed away and he says: “I yoked myself with 
a parcel of ruffians and took to dissipation” (“Life and Trav- 
els”, p. 4). 

Soon he attended another Baptist revival. Many of his 
neighbors were converted, also his wife. She made a profes- 
sion in his absence from home. He was displeased and told 
her to go and see Parson McRoberts (Episcopal clergyman) 
“that he would convince her that infant baptism was the right 
mode’. She replied “that she was fond of hearing him preach, 
but that she would not pin her faith to his sleeve”. For months 
he kept her from being baptized (“Life and Travels’, p. 4). 


HIS INVESTIGATION AND CONVERSION. 


He decided to examine his Bible and pray for God’s guid- 
ance. As usual in such cases, he became convinced that the 
Baptists were right. He says: “I submitted and saw my wife 
buried with Christ in baptism.” Soon afterward he heard Da- 
vid Tinsley preach from Daniel, v. 27: “Thou art weighed in 
the balances and found wanting.” He adds: “It was a glo- 
rious day to me, for God made use of it to show me what a 
wretch I was.” The minister illustrated by supposing a man 
in debt to a merchant 500 pounds, and he has nothing with 
which to pay, and he should say to the merchant, “TI will pay 
asI go.” Would that satisfy the merchant? No, he would take 
him by the throat and say: “Pay what thou owest.” He 
“then calmly explained how we are indebted to God’s right- 
eous law, and that if we could live as holy as an angel in 
Heaven to the end of our days, how could we atone for all 
our past sins?” He said, ‘“God’s Holy Spirit, I trust, sent it 
home to my heart.” After conflicting emotions he was led to 
the proper view of the plan of salvation. He says: “I heard 
no voice, nor was any Scripture applied.” 

In this respect his Christian experience differed from those 
who imagined they heard a voice. His joy was unspeakable, 
and to him it seemed that everything praised God. This was 


10 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


February 24th, 1773 (“Life and Travels’, pp. 4 and 5). April 
following, he was baptized by Reuben Ford, who had baptized 
his wife the fall before. He and the other converts organized 
a prayer meeting, eight men besides himself, and women, and 
young folks. In a few years the result was the organization 
of Skinquarter church, and the nine men all became ordained 
ministers (“Life and Travels’, pp. 6 and 7). Noble example 
for young converts. When Buffalo Lick Baptist church, Shelby 
County, Ky., celebrated their centennial recently it was said 
that the church existed for twenty-seven years without a pas- 
tor, and that they looked after each other. 


WILLIAM HICKMAN VISITS KENTUCKY. 


In the spring of 1776 he “heard of a country called Ken- 
tucky’”’. He and five others came to Kentucky, viz., Geo. S. 
Smith, Edmund and Thomas Wooldridge, William Davis and 
Jesse Low. ‘Three other men joined them in the back part of 
Virginia’. “Three of our number were Christians, and we 
resolved to go to prayer every night. Our new companions in 
their hearts opposed it, but they submitted and behaved well.” 

The journey was difficult and perilous. “The road was a 
rugged, small, narrow path, over mud, logs and high waters”. 
When they reached Crab Orchard, Ky., some of the party filed 
off to Boonesboro, and the rest went on to Harrodstown, now 
Harrodsburg. He exclaims: ‘Here we discovered a wonder, 
when we came to the beauty of the country. I thought of the 
Queen of Sheba who came from the uttermost parts of the 
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and she said the half 
had not been told, so I thought of Kentucky. I thought if I 
could only get ten acres of land I would move to it” (“Life and 
Travels’, p. 8). “On account of conflicting titles to land, 
whether Henderson rights or Cabin rights would stand in law”, 
Mr. Hickman says, ‘‘our tour answered us but little good or ad-’ 
vantage.” 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 1 
MR. HICKMAN RETURNS TO HIS HOME. 


He left his home in Virginia, Feb. 23, 1776, and arrived in 
Harrodsburg, April 1. The journey lasted for thirty-six days. 
He remained sixty days in Kentucky, and started home June 1. 
He reached his home the 24th. In all, he was out about four 
months, and finds his famliy and friends well. When did he 
begin? To the joy of his brethren he continued preaching, 
and many successful revivals crowned his labors. He conducted 
the funeral of an old lady “who was buried on the church 
acre’. “The holy acre’, meaning the consecrated burial 
ground of an Episcopal church, in which only Episcopalians 
were expected to be buried, and on which preachers of other 
denominations were not allowed to preach—so he had to 
“preach outside’. When he started home the gentleman (who 
was her son-in-law) who engaged his services, gave him two 
six-dollar bills. He told the man he never charged. The man 
replied that he knew it, but he wished him to accept it as a 
gift. He took it. Mr. Hickman says: “It was the first penny 
I ever received in my life that way, and I was particular to 
let him know that if I took it at all, it was as a gift and nota 
charge.” 

He says: “I went home with money thoughts. What, a 
money preacher! I looked and felt so little like it.” (“Life 
and Travels”, p. 14). The Baptists of Virginia at that time 
had as their battle ery, ‘“‘A free church and a free Gospel.” 

That slogan finally downed the hireling clergy and the 
established church of Virginia. Mr. Hickman had his misgiv- 
ings about accepting money as a gift. Well he knew that he 
could not afford to subject himself to the charge of in- 
consistency. 

The Baptist preachers paid a high price for being loyal to 
their convictions. They laid themselves, their wives and chil- 
dren on the altar in order to win one of the greatest moral vic- 
tories of the ages. When the friends of the established church 
realized that it was doomed, there was a proposition to estab- 
lish all churches, letting each taxpayer designate the church his 


aly3 WILLIAM HICKMAN, 


tax for religion was to go to. Patrick Henry was an advocate 
of this proposition, and a “‘general tax bill was proposed in the 
Legislature’. 

The Hanover presbytery up to this time stood by the Bap- 
tists, but now they faltered under the leadership of Patrick 
Henry, and favored the General Assessment Bill. In their meet- 
ings resolutions were passed, and they signed petitions in favor 
of the bill.. Prof. James says (“Struggles for Religious Lib- 
erty in Virginia’, p. 135): 

“When the Legislature of 1784 adjourned the Baptists of 
Virginia stood alone as a denomination in opposing the gen- 
eral assessment and kindred bills, and the outlook was not 
bright for the triumph of their principles.” 

Mr. Hickman tells of a young man who engaged him to 
preach his father’s funeral. The time was set. Previous to 
this he met the young man at a night meeting and the young 
man took him aside and told him that he had heard that he 
charged for conducting funerals, and that he wag not able to 
pay. Mr. Hickman asked him for his author, but he would 
not tell. Mr. Hickman told him he had never charged a 
penny in his life, and explained about the two six-dollar bills 
that had been given to him. “Well,” said the young man, “if 
you do not charge you may preach it.” The sermon was 
preached, but he ‘had to do it outside “the holy acre.” 

In those days Mr. Hickman says (“Life and Travels’, p. 
15): “Baptists were despised, which caused Christ’s sheep to 
huddle closer together, and love each other better than when 
there was no opposition. A little before this time eight or nine 
Baptist ministers were put in jail at different times and places.” 
All over Virginia Baptist preachers were often in jail for 
preaching Baptist doctrines. They preached through the 
grates and hundreds were converted. Persecutors have been 
blind and have not learned “that the blood of the martyrs is 
the seed of the church”. Persecution has been the thorny path 
by which martyrs attained canonization. It is the way to make 
our robes white in the blood of the Lamb, and eternal glory is 
the result of trials and tribulations. 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. ies 


William Hickman was ordained to the full work of the 
ministry in 1778 by Geo. Smith and James Duprey, when he 
was thirty-one years old, and two years after he began preach- 
ing. His services were in great demand and his success in 
winning souls to Christ was phenomenal. 

He tells of a father who drove his daughter from home be- 
cause she was converted and baptized. When he was from 
home his wife came to Mr. Hickman’s home with her pack 
under her arm, and after relating a satisfactory experience, he 
and his wife took her to the water and baptized her. Her hus- 
band did not find it out for two years. When the Lord’s Supper 
was observed, she would be in a dark corner covered with a big 
handkerchief, in order to conceal her identity. The deacon who 
waited on her was posted. 

He tells of two preachers who arraigned a young lady be- 
fore the church on “the charge of wearing stays, they being 
in fashion in those days’. Bro. Hickman defended her from 
being excluded (“Life and Travels’, pp. 19 and 20). 


WILLIAM HICKMAN DECIDES TO MOVE TO KENTUCKY. 


On August 16, 1783, he announced he would start August 
16, 1784, and he did. His farewell sermon at Skinquarter 
was a disappointment to him. “Several preachers were pres 
ent, and it was a time of weeping.” Some friends followed 
him a day or two, and Geo. Smith accompanied him about one 
hundred miles. “We brought plenty of provisions and drove 
two cows, to furnish milk for the children and cream for his 
wife’s coffee’. (‘Life and Travels” pp. 19 and 20.) 

“Tt rained almost every day. Waters were deep, and no 
ferries. We were wet day and night.” After the toilsome 
journey of eighty-four days, they arrived at Mr. Smith’s cabin, 
Garrard County, November 9, 1784. ‘Wet, dirty, poor spec- 
tacles we were, but thank God all in common health, the Lord 
was with us through the whole journey.” The next day was 
Sunday, and there was an appointment for preaching at 
Smith’s. There were three other preachers and they would 


14 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


have Hickman preach. He took his text from the fourth 
Psalm: ‘The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for him- 
self.” He says: “I was followed by a Methodist preacher, Mr. 
Swope.” 

Elder John Taylor came from the north side of the river 
and preached at Bro. Robertson’s. William Bledsoe was also 
there. Taylor’s text was, “Christ is all in all”. Hickman 
writes: ‘I fed on the food. It was like the good old Vir- 
ginia doctrine.” 

April 5, 1785, he moved near Lexington, and he and his 
wife joined Lewis Craig’s church, South Elkhorn, the fourth 
Saturday in April, 1785. He adds: “In the fall, Elkhorn As- 
sociation was formed in the house of John Craig on Clear 
Creek.” The Gospel began to spread and many churches were 
constituted. Four of Mr. Hickman’s children were converted 
and joined South Elkhorn church. 

William Hickman moved to Forks of Elkhorn, January 17, 
1788. Leading citizens had persuaded him to locate among 
them. Unknown to him until afterward, they arranged to 
make him a present of one hundred acres of land. His preach- 
ing was greatly blessed, and resulted in many conversions, and 
the constitution of the Forks of Elkhorn church the second 
Saturday in June, 1788, with him as pastor, which position he 
held until his death in 1830, with a slight interim of about 
two years. His zeal for soul winning knew no bounds. 

His missionary tours extended in all directions. The great- ~ 
er the destitution and the greater the danger, the more at- 
tractive to him. What is now Shelby County was then a 
wilderness, sparsely settled and full of roving bands of savages, 
but the tomahawks and the scalping knives were to him no 
terror. He tells of one of his frequent missionary tours to 
Shelby County. 

He and his guard crossed the Kentucky river at Frankfort 
in a small canoe one at a time, swimming their horses; when 
all crossed they saddled the horses. The moon was shining 
and it was snowing. On their journey they crossed Benson 
Creek nineteen times. At some fords the ice would bear them, 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 15 


and at others the horses would break through. They found 
empty cabins. The occupants had either been killed by In- 
dians or driven away. They reached the fort about 2 a.m. 
The old gentleman who kept the fort was away from home, 
and his wife had the “fort well barred”, and thinking they were 
a decoy of Indians, she would not admit them. Finally they 
convinced her, and she let them in. ‘She raised a good fire, 
gave them something to eat, and put them to bed.” Next morn- 
ing runners were sent out to the forts, and a congregation was 
gathered. There was a church, known as Brashear’s Creek, 
near Shelbyville, constituted with eight members about two 
years before, but they were scattered by the Indians. He 
remained some time preaching from fort to fort. With his 
bodyguard of armed men, he used to say “it looked more 
like going to war than preaching the Gospel”. They implored 
him to locate among them, but because of his devotion to 
’ Forks of Elkhorn, he could not consider it. On one of his tours 
he took John Morris who located among them and did fine 
work. Speaking of Morris who located in Shelby County, he 
says: “Many a tour I took with him, long circuits round, ’till 
at last I concluded they were well supplied, and I gave out 
going so often; but now I know of no county in the state so 
well supplied as Shelby—flourishing churches and good min- 
isters. Great changes have turned up in thirty years; I went 
in the front through cold and heat, in the midst of danger, 
but my Lord protected me till now. Blessed be his name.” 
(“Life and Travels’, p. 20). 


WILLIAM HICKMAN STARTS HOME TO VIRGINIA. 


William Hickman started June 1, 1791, to visit his old 
home and friends in Virginia. He traveled through several 
counties, preaching wherever he went. Friends manifested 
their love by throwing presents in his way, for which he was 
thankful to God, and then, after an absence of five months, 
he returned to his home in Kentucky and found his family 
and his brethren well. Soon he was invited by Mr. John Scott, 
grandfather of Col. Tom. Scott of Forks of Elkhorn, to preach 


16 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


in his neighborhood in Scott County. He made several visits, 
converts multiplied and McConnell’s Run church was consti- 
tuted, now known as Stamping Ground, of which he was pastot 
for fourteen years. 

He rejoices that he has had a glorious revival in his Forks 
of Elkhorn church. He “baptized more than five hundred at 
different places, in two years” (‘Life and Travels’, p. 32). 
Many new churches were organized, resulting in many mem- 
bers withdrawing from his church. Decline in membership 
distressed him, but he was consoled that they built a new brick 
meeting house. 


Behold the grand old pioneer, over four-score years old. 
He is not an object for alms or pity, but a man that all must 
admire. Listen to him: “I am in my eighty-first year and 
have a greater charge on me than ever I had. Besides Forks 
of Elkhorn, I am pastor of three other churches, taking all 
of my time, but I want to spend my latter days to God’s glory. 
I enjoy common health through the goodness of God. I have 
come nearly to the end of my privilege. I do believe in the true 
evangelical doctrines of the cross of Christ, and that I am a 
poor sinner of Adam’s fallen race, believing the great God 
knew me from eternity, and included me as one of his pur- 
chases. In time he called me by his Spirit, and made me 
willing in the day of his power, for it is by grace I am saved, 
through faith, that not of myself. Therefore, he deserves all 
the glory” (“Life and Travels”, p. 34). 

This was the kind of theology he lived by, wrought by, and 
died by. In the fall of 1830 he visited his son, William, pas- 
tor at South Benson. After preaching, he started home, ac- 
companied by his son, William. When he reached Frank- 
fort he was unable to go further and stopped at the house of 
a friend. As he rested on a pallet talking of his trust in Jesus, 
he grew weaker until he was silenced in death. He is buried 
at Forks of Elkhorn. When he was seventy-six years of age, 
Elder John Taylor, author of “History of Ten Churches”, says, 
pp. 48 and 49: ‘No man in Kentucky baptized so many people 
as this venerable man. He walks as erect as a palm tree, being 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 117! 


at least six feet high, rather of a lean texture. His style of 
preaching was in plain, solemn style, and the sound of it, like 
thunder in the distance, but when in his best mood, it sounded 
like thunder at home and operates with prodigous force on 
the consciences of his hearers.” He was a loyal and consistent 
Baptist, and lacked patience with the extremest, self-assumed 
standards of orthodoxy. He tells of a Baptist preacher of this 
class he met at Marble Creek church, now East Hickman, Fay- 
ette County, who hurt his feelings. “How could we expect any 
better from such a man?” 

Mr. Hickman organized twenty churches. He was the arbi- 
ter of peace among his brethren. His first wife was Miss 
Shackleford. Thirteen children were born to them. She died 
June 9, 1812, sorely distressed in mind about the massacre of 
her son Pascal at the battle of the River Raisin. 

Hickman County was named in his honor. His second 
marriage was December, 25, 1814, to Mrs. Elizabeth Abbott. 
Three children were born to them. She died Sep. 21, 1826. 


NEW FACTS IN HISTORY. 


Before closing this paper I must tell of that which caused 
him great trouble. In his “Life and Travels” he does not 
allude to it. John Taylor must have known it, and he does 
not mention it. Dr. Spencer heard that there was something, 
but his account is incomplete aand inaccurate in details. In 
order to account for the event that has not been given to the 
public an explanation is in order. Bear in mind that Kentucky 
was a part of Virginia until 1792. Questions that were agitated 
in Virginia were discussed and agitated in Fincastle county 
of Virginia. There was a memorable meeting of Baptists at 
Williams’ meeting house, Goochland county, Virginia, March 
7, 1778, a meeting that deserves to rank with that at Runny- 
mede in 1215 A.D., when the barons of England wrenched 
from the iron grip of King John the Magna Charta; a meeting 
pregnant with the same invincible purpose as that of Phila- 
delphia in 1776, when the immortals signed the Declaration 


18 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


of Independence. That was with a contemptuous sneer styled 
(according to Prof. Jesse B. Thomas, D.D.) by the tyrants of 
Europe “an Anabaptist document”. Let it be known and never 
be forgotten that Baptists through the ages have been the per- 
sistent and uncompromising champions of civil and religious 
liberty. Well does Bancroft, in creed a Unitarian, say (vol. II, 
p. 66), ‘Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of mind, 
has been from the first the trophy of the Baptists.” 

With the Baptists of Virginia soul freedom was the reward 
of eternal vigilance and self-sacrifice. Like the heroes who 
scaled 203 Meter Hill at Port Arthur, they resolved to conquer 
or die. 

Two great questions were discussed for three days. First, 
shall we favor or oppose the ratification of the Federal Con- 
stitution? Unanimously they decided to oppose it, and nom- 
inated Elder John Leland for the legislature to vote against 
it. Their reason was that the Constitution contained no guar- 
antee against the establishment of a national church. 

Laws in all the colonies except Rhode Island, New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania had discriminated against Baptists reli- 
giously and politically and their long suffering and bitter 
experience put them on their guard. 

The first petition presented to the Continental Congress 
in 1776 was by a committee composed of the Rev. Isaac 
Backus, and President Manning, of Rhode Island College, now 
Brown University, appointed by the Warren Baptist Associa- 
tion of Rhode Island, praying for the removal of civil and 
religious disabilities. As a result we have the sixth article of 
the Constitution of the United States: ‘‘No religious test shall 
ever be required as a qualification for any office or public 
trust under the United States.” Good so far, but the Baptists 
of Virginia in those days were not modest in their demands. 
Mr. James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, favored the 
ratification. On his return from the East he spent a half-day 
with Elder Leland. After fully explaining his position, he 
convinced Mr. Leland that while it was not all that was desired, 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 19 


it was too much to run the risk of losing, for unless Virginia 
ratified it, it could not become the law of the land. 


HELD BALANCE OF POWER. 


The Baptists held the balance of power in Orange county, 
and the election of Mr. Madison to the convention depended 
on the withdrawal of Mr. Leland from the race. Mr. Leland 
declared in favor of Mr. Madison who was elected. The Federal 
Constitution, after a hard struggle, was ratified by a majority 
of 10. Mr. Madison was elected to Congress and, true to the 
faith and hopes of the Baptists, the amendment desired by the 
Baptists was offered by Mr. Madison January 8, 1789. It was 
the first amendment to the Constitution, and was adopted 
September 25, 1789, and reads as follows: ‘Congress shall 
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or pro- 
hibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

Quoting from Dr. H. M. King’s “Religious Liberty,” page 
113, who quotes from Appleton’s New Encyclopaedia: “The 
article on religious liberty in the amendments to the Ameri- 
can Constitution was introduced into it by the united efforts 
of the Baptists in 1789.” Alone Baptists could not have done 
all credited to them. We had powerful friends, e.g.: Thomas 
Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Gen. Washington 
and myriads of sympathizers in the struggle, and above all, 
God. Baptists were the pioneers—the agitators—the consistent 
forerunners. 

H. M. King, D.D., “Religious Liberty” p. 118, says that 
“Judge Story in his commentary on the Constitution says that 
at the time this amendment was adopted it was the genuine 
if not universal sentiment in America that Christianity ought 
to receive encouragement by ‘the state.” 

This amendment sounded the death knell of the unhallow- 
ed union of church and state, not only in the United States, 
but on the Western Continent, and inaugurated a holy crusade 
against all forms of ecclesiastical despotism all over the world. 

The second great question discussed at that memorable 


20 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


meeting at Williams’ meeting house, Goochland county, was 
emancipation. August 8, 1789, the Baptist general commit- 
tee of Virginia met in Richmond. “The property of ‘hered- 
itary slavery was taken up at this session,” Mr. Semple (the 
Baptist historian) says: ‘And after some time employed in 
the consideration of the subject, the following resolution was 
offered by John Leland, and adopted: ‘Resolved, that slavery 
is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and incon- 
sistent with a Republican government, and therefore recom- 
mend it to our brethren to make use of every legal measure 
to extirpate this horrid evil from the land, and pray Almighty 
God that our honorable Legislature may have it in their 
power to proclaim the great Jubilee consistent with the princi- 
ples of good policy.’ ” 

Dr. Spencer said in “History of Kentucky Baptists”, pp. 
184 and 185, in 1880: “Whatever may be thought on this 
subject now, it cannot be denied that the Baptists of ninety 
years ago were strongly opposed to slavery. They are entitled — 
to honor or reproach of being the first religious society in the 
South to declare explicitly in favor of the abolition of slavery.” 

In 1791 slavery agitation reached Kentucky. The Baptist 
associations of Kentucky kept up ‘a correspondence with the 
general committee of the Virginia Baptists, by letters and mes- 
sengers, and were posted on all their proceedings. Many of 
the Baptist preachers became radically opposed to slavery, and 
favored emancipation. Mr. Hickman spent five months in 
Virginia this year, and he came home full of it. For thirty 
years the subject wrought havoc in our churches. Emancipa- 
tion churches were organized and formed into emancipation 
district associations. 

In 1805 a resolution was adopted at a meeting of Elkhorn 
Association at Bryants (calling a halt on the agitation) viz.: 
“This association judges it improper for ministers, churches 
or associations to meddle with emancipation of slavery, or any 
other political subject, and as such we advise ministers, churches 
and associations to have nothing to do therewith in their 
religious capacities.” 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 21 


This resolution gave great offense to the emancipation. 
“Even the laborious and earnest William Hickman was carried 
beyond the limits of prudence.” On the “last day” that same 
year he preached at Elkhorn, of which he was a member and 
pastor, text, Isaiah 58:8, “Is not this the fact that I have been 
chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
yoke.” This sermon, says Theodore Boulware, “was disingen- 
uous and offensive. The speaker declared nonfellowship for 
slaveholders.” A few days afterward he wrote a letter to the 
church declaring his withdrawal. John Shackleford was called 
to the pastoral care of Forks of Elkhorn church for one year. 
Before his time was out Mr. Hickman returned and gave sat- 
isfaction to the church, and when the year was out resumed its 
pastorship. The above incident is taken from Dr. Spencer’s 
history. 

“The Minutes of the Forks of Elkhorn Church’, kindly 
loaned to me by Dr. J. R. Sampey, the present pastor, do not 
accord with Spencer’s account. The sermon stirred up a church 
crisis. I quote from church minutes, page 821: “Second Sat- 
urday in December, 1806, a charge against William Hickman 
for inviting Carter Tarrant to preach at his home after being 
excluded for disorder in Hillsboro church”. The church took 
the question, is it right to invite an excommunicated minister 
to preach? Answered by a majority of three-fourths, it is not. 
Second, five said Brother Hickman had erred, eight said he had 
not.” 

They loved him, and even if they differed with him in 
judgment, they made the allowance that true love required. 

Did Mr. Hickman write a letter of withdrawal from the 
church? The church record does not sustain it. I quote from 
church minutes: 

“The second Sunday in sis denibaie 1807. After divine ser- 
vices, proceeded to business. Bro. William Hickman came 
forward and informed the church that he was distressed on 
account of the practice of slavery, as being tolerated by the 
members of the Baptist Society, therefore, he declared himself 


22 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


no more in union with us and Elkhorn Association. There- 
fore, the church considers him no more a member in fellow- 
ship. This was nineteen years after he became pastor. Alas 
for human frailty and inconsistency.” 

The above act was nineteen months after his Thanksgiving 
sermon. 

According to church minutes, we will see that John Shack- 
leford was called to the pastorate for one year, and before the 
year was out, he was engaged for another year. “Second Satur- 
day in January, 1808. Brother John Shackleford made choice 
of as minister to preach and administer the ordinances of this 
church, and that he be requested to attend us one year, on our 
monthly meeting days, and as he can make it convenient.” 
Quoting from minutes, p. 102: “Second Saturday in October, 
1808. Committee to talk to Bro. John Shackleford and see 
whether he will attend the church one year more on the same 
principles he has done the preceding year and report to the 
church. 

“4. The men appointed to talk to Bro. Shackleford re- 
port to the church, that he is willing to attend this church the 
ensuing year on the same principles he did the preceding year.” 
He was called and accepted as pastor the second year. He was 
pastor from January, 1808, to December, 1809. He was pas- 
tor one year and eleven months. 

According to church minutes of Forks of Elkhorn church, 
page 106: “The second Sunday in November, 1809, William 
Hickman came forward and offered his membership and after 
some conversation, he was restored to membership and his 
former standing.” 

According to church minutes Hickman ceased to be moder- 
ator of the church from the first Saturday in August, 1807, to 
the second Saturday in December, 1809. If he ceased to be 
pastor, when he ceased to be moderator, which is probable, he 
was out of the pastorate about two years and three months. He 
saw those who had been converted under his ministry, alienated 
and ungrateful to him. Relations that had been the dearest of 
earthly ties, were broken. Suspicion took the place of confi- 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. De 


dence, and love was dethroned by misgivings and distrust. 
Some who had been enemies and jealous of him rejoiced in 
what they considered his downfall. The church that he loved 
better than his life languished, and the lost were neglected. 
Through the ages, Baptists have been proscribed and _perse- 
euted, and sad to tell, that some misguided Baptists have been 
almost as cruel and unmerciful to each other as those of other 
creeds have been to them. Many of the leading statesmen, and 
the Baptists, registered their protest against slavery over one 
hundred years before the immortal Lincoln issued his emanci- 
pation proclamation | 

‘Mr. Hickman puts himself on record as a conscientious 
Christian and against an evil that he regarded as colossal, and 
sooner or later destined to threaten the existence of the Union. 
Seeing that the agitation was premature, and at the time hope- 
less, without apology or retraction, for the sake of peace among 
the churches and his own usefulness, he left the matter with 
God, who in his own time and way brought about the eman- 
cipation of slavery, thus vindicating the wisdom and foresight 
of his servant. We are thankful for our schools and colleges, 
and our great theological seminary, the spiritual lighthouse 
of our Southland. We rejoice that we have men trained in the 
highest and best learning, but far be it from us to fail to 
honor our sainted pioneers. 

Tn their abject poverty and with their meager opportuni- 
ties, regardless of hardship and danger, they planted the Gospel 
in the dark and bloody ground. They sowed in tears, and we 
are reaping with joy. They laid the foundation deep and 
strong, on which we are building. They courted not the 
favor of the world nor feared its frown. They contended not 
for an earthly but for a heavenly crown. They generally 
supported themselves, taking the Apostle Paul as an example, 
who made tents for a living when it was necessary to doit. In 
no other way could the poor in those days have the Gospel 
preached to them. Let us not forget that there are sections 
in almost every part of Kentucky dependent upon poor, self- 


24 WILLIAM HICKMAN. 


sacrificing men who have to supplement their scant salary by 
outside work. 


THE BACKWOODS PREACHERS. 


Thank God for the backwoods preachers, “the pathfinders, 
the blazers on the border’, often unknown to eazthly fame. 
Without such, hundreds of our churches in this state and 
thousands in our Southland would be without pastors. There 
is no longer an excuse for brethren who contemplate the work 
of the ministry to neglect preparation for it. The average 
young man of to-day has double the opportunity for an educa- 
tion that the average young man had a generation ago. 

There is not a young man in the state, endowed with a 
sound mind and body, who has not a far better opportunity for 
acquiring an education than the average college graduate in 
this audience had. No man can be too well trained for his 
work, whatever that work may be. It has always been true that 
where there is a will there is a way. How much more true in 
our day. With common sense as a foundation no one can have 
too much learning. Ignorance can only be bliss when the indi- 
vidual is irresponsible. The libraries of our pioneers consisted 
of sixty-six books, and that in one—the Bible. They were one- 
Book men, and known as “mighty in the Scriptures”. As they 
studied it, they believed that God was their guide, and that 
Christ was their leader. In the annals of our pioneer worthies 
who wrought and pre-empted Kentucky for the Baptists, Wil- 
liam Hickman was in vision and achievements imperial. By 
right, without detracting from his coadjutors, he ranks as the 
Gideon of the Baptist pioneer army in Kentucky. 

The ancients imagined a circle around the sun, in which 
their orators, statesmen and heroes of all generations dwell. 
Be that as it may. I fancy I see the redeemed of every age 
and clime parading the streets of the New Jerusalem in glo- 
rious triumph. I fancy I see seats of high honor, reserved for 
prophets, apostles, martyrs and missionaries, who in all ages 


WILLIAM HICKMAN. 25 


placed themselves on the altar, and obeyed God rather than 
men, 
For truth with tireless zeal they sought, 
In joyless paths they trod, 
Heedless of pain or blame they wrought 
And left the rest with God. 


But though their names no poet wove 
In deathless song or story, 

Their record is inscribed above, 
Their wreaths are crowns of glory. 


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[muypsonT 79 myn9424 —KAOD] 


A history of the Western Baptist 
Ghealogiral Jnstitute 


Covington, Ky. 
by 


W. C. James, Th. B. 


Gunteuts 


Western Growth. 

Western Baptist Pioneers.. 

Western Baptist Progress. 

Western Baptist Convention. 

Western Baptist Education Society. 
Selecting and Improving a Site. 
Western Baptist Theological Institute. 


. The Institute in Operation. 


Southern Aloofness. 

A New Element in the Controversy. 
Documentary Proof. 

A Stormy Session. 


. A New Start. 
. Agreeing to Disagree. 


Conclusion. 


irefare 


Much of the material which enters into the composition of 
the following narrative has been secured from the old files of 
Baptist newspapers. 

The New York Recorder, Western Watchman, South-West- 
ern Baptist Chronicle, Religious Herald, Tennessee Baptist, 
Christian Index and other religious journals whose files are in 
the library of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have 
been examined with as much care as I could command, and 
made to yield up the information which they contained. 1 
regret exceedingly that it was impossible for me to procure 
the ante-bellum files of the Journal and Messenger of Cin- 
cinnati. From the nature of the case they doubtless contain 
much valuable information concerning the history of the 
Western Baptist Theological Institute. They are not in our 
library nor are they to be found in the office at Cincinnati. 

By far the most abundant information from the papers has 
been derived from the columns of The Baptist Banner and 
Western Pioneer, then published in Louisville and now rep- 
resented by the Western Recorder. Very many of the articles 
to be found in the other papers were published originally in 
the Banner and Pioneer. 

The Western Baptist Review also contains several vigorous 
articles on the Institute from the trenchant pen of its brilliant 
editor—John L. Waller. Many if not all of Dr. Waller’s edi- 
torials were later published in the Banner and Pioneer. But 
more copious and connected than the information procured 
from the papers is that to be found in A Brief Sketch of the 
Western Baptist Theological Institute by J. Stevens of Cin- 
cinnati, which sketch was published in 1850. In this is set 
forth the Northern view of the matter in dispute. The Ken- 
tucky trustees published a reply to Stevens’ sketch in which 
their side of the case is declared. The above two pamphlets 


32 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 


are very valuable and so far as is known there are only two 
sets to be found—one in the Seminary library, the other in the 
library of a local historical society in Cincinnati. 

For assistance rendered in the prosecution of the work, I 
desire to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Geo. E. Stevens of 
Cincinnati who answered patiently and promptly the many in- 
quiries addressed to him, to the Hon. Mr. Payne, Treasurer 
of Georgetown College, who placed at my disposal for several 
weeks the Minutes of the Financial and Executive Committee 
of the Institution from 1848 to 1853, to President J. J. Taylor, 
Drs. Yager and Ryland of Georgetown College, to Miss Mary 
Dudley, Librarian of Georgetown College, to the Librarian of 
the Seminary Library who has been unfailing in his coutesies, 
and to Col. R. T, Durrett of Louisville, who not only proffered 
the use of the books, but himself personally assisted me in my 
investigation. Nor can I fail to mention Dr. Wm. Ashmore, 
the veteran missionary to China, who is an alumnus of the 
ill-fated school, and who has done much to acquaint me with 
the student life which obtained at the Institute. 

It has not been thought necessary to incorporate within the 
following narrative the original charter of the Institute with 
the various amendments which were made to it. There has 
been added, however, as Appendix, the amendment procured 
by the Kentucky Trustees by means of which they wrested the 
Institute from the Ohioans and themselves secured entire 
control. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 33 


I 


WESTERN GROWTH. 

At the close of the third decade of the nineteenth century— 
for at this point we find the beginnings of the events herein 
recorded—the population of that portion of the United States 
lying between the Alleghany mountains and the Mississippi 
river was estimated at 3,000,000. 

Fifty years before this, i.e., about 1780, Daniel Boone, the 
famous hunter, had begun the settlement of Kentucky and 
James Robertson was moving into Tennessee. About the same 
time (1778-9) a young Virginian, George Rogers Clark, hear- 
ing of an attempt on the part of Col. Hamilton then in com- 
mand of the British forces at Detroit, to stir up all the western 
tribes of Indians to a concerted attack upon the frontier, un- 
dertook to prevent the frightful consequences which such an 
attack, should it be successful, would produce. In two short, 
yet brilliant campaigns, he conquered and captured Hamilton 
at Vincennes and concluded his enterprise by capturing and 
holding all the territory north of the Ohio river and extending 
from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. Inspired by the 
daring of such doughty pioneers as Boone and Robertson, and 
encouraged by the victories of Clark to hope for reasonable 
exemption from Indian attacks, long wagon trains could fre- 
quently be seen dragging their tedious lengths across the 
mountain passes, and ere long the rude, yet comfortable log 
cabins, and the well-tilled farms gave unmistakable evidence 
of the presence of the pioneer. But soon the second war with 
England engaged the attention of all on both sides of the 
mountains, and in consequence, the Indian depredations in the 
Northwest and Southwest were poor inducements with which 
to lure would-be emigrants from the other side. But this pas- 
sage at arms between America and the mother country happily 
proved of short duration. The latter acquiesced in all the 


34 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


demands which the victorious nation imposed upon her, there- 
by strengthening the American feeling of nationality and 
showing that the period of weakness for the new nation was 
rapidly coming to an end. Moreover during the war Gen. Har- 
rison completely annihilated the combined British and Indian 
forces in the battle of the Thames and so presently recovered 
the Northwest territory, while Andrew Jackson at the head of 
a few United States regulars in a bloody campaign of six or 
seven months, which was brought to a successful termination 
by the battle of Tallapoosa in March, 1814, delivered a crush- 
ing blow to the Indian forces in the Southwest. And so from 
the mountains to the Mississippi the settlers were again re- 
lieved of the fear of attack from the red man. A short time 
before the breaking out of the war a steamboat was launched 
on the Ohio at Pittsburg and it was not long before the Ohio, 
with its tributaries, was provided with many such vessels bear- 
ing a constantly increasing supply of emigrants to their west- 
ern homes. The successful termination of the war which begat 
a feeling of safety, and the introduction of steamboat travel, 
which greatly facilitated means of communication, undoubted- 
ly had much to do with the westward expansion which now 
ensued. As an evidence of the rapid growth of population, it 
is only necessary to recall the fact that each year for four con- 
secutive years, a new state in the Mississippi valley was added 
to the Union. And so, the integrity of our possessions being 
now assured and immunity from the aggressions of Indians 
guaranteed, the tide of population temporarily held back, now 
set in again from the East with increased volume and mo- 
mentum, and there was accordingly ushered in for “the next 
fifty years a material growth without a parallel in history.” 


II 
WESTERN BAPTIST PIONEERS. 


But we err if we suppose that representatives of the Chris- 
tian faith were not found among the great numbers that now 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 30 


poured into the Middle West. Many of them there were of all 
denominations, lay and ministerial, and quite valiantly did 
they bear themselves in the struggle to improve not only their 
material, but the moral conditions. It is not our purpose nor 
desire to derogate a tithe from the praise due to other denomi- 
nations for their contribution to the moral enlightment of the 
new territory, and yet it seems that to the Baptists is due the 
credit of first proclaiming the story of the cross in this region. 

Although Daniel Boone was not a Baptist, several members 
of his family were, and a brother, Squire Boone, was a Bap- 
tist preacher. Except preacher Boone the first man to preach 
the Gospel in Kentucky, and perhaps in the whole West, was 
Thomas Tinsley, who with William Hickman:settled in Har- 
rodsburg in 1776, the Boone settlement having been consti- 
tuted more than a year before. The first church in Kentucky 
and in the entire West was organized by the Bapitisis in 1781, 
and as the First Baptist church of Elizabethtown, is in exist- 
ence to-day. Many, if not almost all of the Kentucky Baptists, 
were from Virginia. In the fall of 1781 a church worshiping 
in Spottsylvania county Va., with her pastor, Lewis Craig, 
moved over to Kentucky and settled on Gilbert’s Creek, and 
Semple, the Virginia Baptist historian, is authority for the 
statement that between 1791 and 1810 fully one-fourth of the 
Baptists of Virginia removed to Kentucky. 

As in Kentucky so in Ohio. The first church organized in 
the Northwest territory was the Columbia Baptist, whose date 
is January 20, 1790. The Columbia Township was then about 
five miles from what is now the site of Cincinnati—the growth 
of the latter city having brought Columbia within her corporate 
limits. In 1889 a monument commemorative of this event was 
erected on the site of the first house of worship built by the 
church. Two inscriptions recite the date of the coming of the 
Baptist pioneers, the date of organization, the name of the 
constituent members and the purchase of two acres of ground 
as a building lot from Maj. Benjamin Stites, who was at the 
head of the first band of pioneers that settled on Ohio soil and 
who later became a prominent member of this church. 


36 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


In Illinois Territory in 1786, thirty-two years before its 
admission as a state, tlte Lemen family had founded the first 
church, organized the first association and were the leaders in 
the anti-slavery movement years before the birth of Parker, 
Phillips and Garrison who led the later “abolition” crusade. 

Also in the region beyond the Mississippi the word of the 
Lord sounded forth, and here again, according to Newman, 
the Baptists were the first to proclaim it, and so the above 
facts would seem to indicate that it would not be difficult to 
prove that the Baptists were the first to preach the Gospel in 
the valley of the Mississippi; and in reading the record of those 
days of toil and privation it is interesting indeed to meet with 
the names of those who became the noble progenitors of sons 
and daughters who to-day in secular and religious pursuits 
are bearing themselves worthily and, by their devotion to the 
cause for which their fathers suffered, show that they are not 
insensible to the high source from which they sprang. 


III. 
WESTERN BAPTIST PROGRESS. 


There was, to be sure, quite a diversity of opinion among 
the Christians of those pioneer days. But generally speaking 
they were divided into two classes—the party of progress and the 
party of conservatism and inaction, the one in favor of mis- 
sions and education, the other opposed to efforts of such charac- 
ter. Of these two classes the Baptists had formidable array 
of the latter kind. The Presbyterians also felt powerfully the 
hindering influence of the latter class, but it is with the Bap- 
tists here that we are concerned. So effective and wide-spread 
were the teachings of Daniel Parker and A. Campbell that by 
1836 in many places north and south of the Ohio, “the Baptist 
candle-stick was well-nigh removed.” Opposition to Sabbath 
schools, to missions, to education and to all kinds of Chris- 
tian enterprise seemed to have carried the day. But the party 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 37 


of progress was in the fight to stay, and was determined to 
know no such word as “fail” in their efforts to promote the Re- 
deemer’s kingdom. They were convinced of the need of an 
educated ministry and set themselves to work very assiduously 
to procure it. 

And here it may not be improper to pause long enough 
to consider the grounds of opposition to an educated ministry. 
The first and most potent reason was the jealousy which seized 
the uncultured and ignorant pioneer preacher lest his hold 
upon the people should be lost and so his occupation would 
be gone. ‘These early preachers were good men and accom- 
plished much for truth and righteousness, but like many of 
their brethren to-day in the pulpit and out of it, they had not 
yet reached the eminence which John occupied when pointing 
to the Lord he could say, ‘““He must increase but I must de- 
crease.” 

There was another objection, and this weighed no little 
with the Kentucky Baptists. Many of them were from Vir- 
ginia where the Establishment existed. There they were re- 
quired by law to support the Episcopal clergy sent over from 
England, the majority of whom were a convivial set, fond of 
cock-fighting, horse-racing and other diversions and whose 
only claim to merit consisted very largely in the fact that they 
were educated. An educated preacher was thus commonly 
identified in their minds with a worldly-minded preacher and 
to the support of such an one they were not disposed to con- 
tribute. 

It was not an easy task to overcome the opposition which 
such prejudice and jealousy would engender, and much of it 
was never overcome. But how successful the progressive Chris- 
tain element was in its efforts to provide educational institutions 
for the training of its young ministry may be seen from this: 
In the region between the Mississippi and the Alleghany the 
evangelical denominations—Baptist, Methodist and Presbyter- 
ian—by 1837 had established twenty-one colleges, the oldest of 
which is Centre College (Presbyterian) at Danville. Of these 
the following were Baptist: Georgetown College, Ky., estab- 


38 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


lished in 1829; Clinton College, Miss., 1830; Denison Univer- 
sity, Ohio, 1831; Shurtleff College, Ill., 1832; and Franklin Col- 
lege, Ind., 1834. The need for an educated ministry was pro- 
nounced and heroically did these few yet progressive Baptists ad- 
dress themselves to their task. In 1838 there were, according to 
a comepetent authority, 60,000 Baptists in Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois and Kentucky. Many of them were illiterate and “of 637 
ordained ministers in the same territory probably not 30 had re- 
ceived any college training.” But now, how changed! Baptist 
colleges, seminaries, and universities abound, Baptist people so 
far as intelligence is concerned need not hang their heads any- 
where. One of the largest universities in America and in many 
respects the most conspicuous, is under Baptist control, the 
largest Theological Seminary in America is a Baptist Seminary, 
and when a few years ago a committee from the University of 
California came East seeking for a president, five out of the 
seven whom they interviewed relative to the presidency were 
Baptists and a Baptist was chosen for the position. 


IV. 
WESTERN BAPTIST CONVENTION. 


The annals of American Baptist history do not contain a 
more melancholy chapter than that which records the begin- 
ning, the bright prospects and the early demise of The Western 
Baptist Theological Institute which opened its doors in Coving- 
ton, Ky., in the fall of 1845, which had in its faculty men who 
were distinguished alike for learning and piety, which sent 
forth from its walls during the brief period of its existence a 
number of students, some of whom rendered exceptional ser- 
vice to their generation, which had every prospect of a career 
of uninterrupted usefulness but so soon fell a prey to the divis- 
ive influences which the agitation of slavery produced. Let us 
go back to the origin of the Institute. 

The Baptist Weekly Journal which began publication in 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 39 


1831 did yoeman service for the Baptist cause in those early 
days. In this it proved a true forerunner of its suecessor—the 
Journal and Messenger. This paper—the Journal—thinking 
that the Baptist cause in the West could be materially assisted 
by a general meeting of Western Baptists urged from time to 
time the need of such a gathering. Such a meeting, it was 
thought, would lead to a better mutual acquaintance and under- 
standing, thereby strengthening the bonds of fellowship, would 
furnish a most desirable opportunity for the interchange of 
views, for the discussion of boti: principles and policies and 
hence contribute directly to “a more vigorous co-operation in 
behalf of those enterprises in which the denomination had 
already embarked.” As a result of this effort there was held 
on July 9, 1833, a meeting of a few Cincinnati Baptists, at 
which it was resolved, first, that it would be well to have a 
general meeting of Western Baptists in the last week of the next 
October. Second, that a committee of three be appointed to 
consult with leading brethren in the West and East as to the 
wisdom of such a meeting. A third resolution embodied the 
names of the brethren with whom the committee was instructed 
to correspond. ‘These names numbered nine and were dis- 
tributed as follows: Three from the East, two each from Ken- 
tucky and Illinois, one each from Indiana and Missouri, while 
the Committee on Correspondence were all three from Cincin- 
nati. This committee through its Chairman, S. W. Lynd, en- 
tered into correspondence with the brethren specified, and 
favorable replies having been received from them, a circular 
address was issued by the committee, “To the Members of the 
Baptist Denomination in the Western States,” setting forth 
plans for ““A General Meeting for the promotion of the cause of 
Christ, as connected with the interests of the Baptist Denomi- 
nation in the Western States, to be held in Cincinnati, com- 
mencing Noovember 6, 1833.” A _ general attendance was 
urged, and the subjects to be discussed were Home and Foreign 
Missions, Denominational Literature, Sabbath Schools and 
Ministerial Education. 


The day appointed for the convention came and with it 


40 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


came 109 delegates—from Ohio, 74; from Kentucky, 18; from 
Indiana, 8; from Illinois, 1; and from the East there were 7. We 
pause a moment to observe the general character of the meet- 
ing. 

In the first place it must have been a source of immense 
pleasure and encouragement to the 100 Western Baptists to see 
one another, for the first time and perhaps for the last time, 
to experience the fraternal handshake, to see eye to eye, and to 
talk about the interests of the Redeemer’s Kingdom which God 
had committed to them in the far West. To us who live in 
these latter days when steam and electricity have virtually an- 
nihilated time and distance and brought the ends of the earth 
together, to travel several hundred or a thousand miles is a 
matter of small concern. When we remember that in 1830 
there were only twenty-three miles of railroad in the United 
States, and that the only modes of locomotion were the usual 
road conveyances and the slow river-boats, we can easily imagine 
the output of time and expense to which the delegates were 
subjected in order to be present at this, which “is believed to be 
the first religious convention of a general character whose con- 
stitueney crossed state lines west of the Alleghanies.” Surely 
the Western brethren were encouraged by the presence of their 
Eastern brethren and they in turn were gratified at the determi- 
nation of the pioneers to put a Christian, yea, a Baptist, stamp 
upon the new and unfounded West. Everything was done that 
could be done in this gathering to promote harmony and allay 
prejudice. Hence it was called not a convention, but a general 
meeting. At that time it was a matter or dispute with some 
whether ministers should be called Elder, Reverend or Doctor— 
many opposing with vehemence at times the use of the last two. 
Consequently in the early sessions of the meeting all titles were 
omitted. Particularly were the brethren anxious to avoid the 
discussion of and the allusion to any subject that might call 
forth a display of sectional feeling—and in this they were emi- 
nently successful. 

Note also that this was a meeting not of Northern, nor East- 
ern, nor Southern, but of Western Baptists. It included all 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. A 


Baptists west of the Alleghanies and on both sides of the Ohio. 
On the other side of the mountains the line of cleavage, geo- 
eraphically speaking, had been plainly drawn and evidences 
were not wanting that it was beginning to be drawn socially, 
politically and religiously. Already in the East the slavery 
agitation had begun to array the North against the South, and 
there were not a few who could discern signs of inevitable con- 
flict. It must ‘have been observed that, in the calling of this 
meeting and in the objects which later were fostered by it, the 
initiative was taken by Baptists north of the Ohio. They were 
Northern men, many of them were New England men, and 
hence they were anti-slavery men. They were such by birth, 
by environment, by education—the same reasons that made 
Southerners pro-slavery men. 

But let it be remembered, they were not abolitionists and 
had no sympathy with the extreme measures advocated by 
Theodore Parker, Wendel Philips and William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, but rather deplored them. It was therefore the sincere 
desire of these Ohio Baptists to ignore sectionalism and to enlist 
the help of all the Baptists west of the mountains. There was a 
great work to be done on this side of the mountains, and they 
naturally believed it could be done by the Baptists that were 
living there. Hence this was a general meeting of Western - 
Baptists. When some years later one of the chief enterprises 
conceived by this meeting became involved in trouble and some 
of the Eastern journals voluntarily offered their advices, it was 
J. M. Peck who insisted that the affair was “strictly and solely 
a Western one and that the ultraists North and South have no 
business with it.” 

It may not be uninteresting to observe the personnel of the 
gathering. Our attention is naturally enough directed first of 
all to the brother who preached the opening sermon. He is 
Silas Mercer Noel, who was born near Richmond, Va., and, 
when George Washington became president, was a boy six years 
of age. He was well educated, studied law and began the prac- 
tice of it in Frankfort, Ky. After some years of successful 
practice he exchanged the bar for the pulpit, became a pastor 


Ad THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


and proved himself a tower of strength to the Baptist cause. 
T.ater when appointed judge of the circuit court he accepted 
the position and filled it with distinction, and then resigned to 
devote his entire time to the ministry. His success as a preach- 
er drew forth the statement that “he baptized more people than 
any other preacher in Kentucky.” In one year he baptized 
309 persons into the membership of a single church. He died 
at the early age of fifty-six, and during the last three years of 
his life was pastor of the Baptist church at Lexington, Ky. 

Jonathan Going was also there. He was born in Vermont 
and was three years younger than Noel. He was a graduate 
of Brown University and for sixteen years was pastor of the 
Baptist church in Worcester, Mass. Becoming profoundly in- 
terested in the cause of Home Missions, he obtained from his 
church permission to visit the struggling Baptist churches in 
the West and came out to Ohio in 1831. On his return to the 
Kast he was made corresponding secretary of the Home Mission 
Society, and in that capacity he was present at this meeting. 
He built wisely and well for the Western Baptists, his heart was 
with them, and in 1837 he became the second president of 
Granville College, which position he filled with great satisfac- 
tion until death claimed him in 1844. 

Herman Lincoln is one whom we must not pass by. He was 
a splendid type of the consecrated business man. He was three 
years old when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of 
Independence. He served his county and district in the lower 
and upper houses of the Massachusetts Legislature; was a mem- 
ber of the convention for the revision of the state constitution 
and, being an intelligent Baptist, he made an earnest plea for 
religious liberty and the rights of conscience. He believed 
thoroughly in home and foreign missions and as president 
of the Home Mission Society the was at this meeting to help his 
Western brethren. So deep became his interest in the cause of 
missions that he withdrew from his regular business and de- 
voted his time to the cause which lay so close to his heart. He 
honored God and God in turn honored him with an unuually 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 43 


long and useful career, and gave him a son who bore his name 
and for many years was a professor in Newton Seminary. 

Howard Malcom was also there. He too was an educated 
preacher, having received training in academy, college and 
seminary ; later he was honored with the degree of D.D., from 
the University of Vermont and from Union College. His ex- 
acting duties as author and pastor had made necessary an eight- 
months’ trip to Europe and he had returned in time to attend 
the Cincinnati meeting. In a short while he sailed for 
Burmah and spent two and a half years in visiting mission sta- 
tions. On his return he was elected to the presidency of George- 
town College, Ky., which position he occupied for about ten 
years when slavery troubles caused him to resign and seek more 
congenial spheres. Later as a Philadelphia pastor, as presi- 
dent of Bucknell University and as an advocate of every good 
work he concluded a useful life and in his eighty-first year 
passed on to his reward. 

Among the delegates could be seen the inspiring and elo- 
quent countenance of Henry Jackson who for fourteen years 
was pastor at Charlestown, Mass., seven years at Bedford and 
then concluded his ministerial career with a pastorate of twenty- 
three years at Newport, R. I. He was a graduate and trustee of 
Brown, one of the founders of Newton Seminary and a trustee 
of the same for thirty-eight years. 

S. W. Lynd cannot be passed by. He had studied under 
the eloquent Wm. Stoughton, had married his daughter and 
came West to Cincinnati when the Baptist cause in that city was 
at a low ebb. He was the recognized leader of the missionary 
party in the Miami Association, and in this meeting made a 
speech on “benevolent efforts,’ which produced a thrilling 
effect upon the audience. His long pastorate of fifteen years in 
Cincinnati did more for the Baptist cause in southern Ohio 
than did the labors of any other one man and was terminated 
that he might undertake a similar work in St. Louis. Later at 
Covington and Georgetown, Ky., as author, editor, teacher and 
Seminary president, he continued to serve his generation and 
at eighty years of age entered into his rest. 


44 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


Nor must we forget J. Stevens, who was one of the secre- 
taries of the convention, a man of unusual mental, moral and 
physical energy, devoted to every good cause, and his memory 
to-day is one of the choicest heritages of Ohio Baptists. He was 
a graduate of Middleburg College in Vermont, and being a Con- 
gregationalist, attended Andover where he enjoyed the tuition 
of Moses Stuart. While in the seminary he became a Baptist 
and was baptized by Dr. Bolles of Salem. Coming West, he 
became the first editor of what is now the Journal and Mes- 
senger, and for fifty years as editor, professor in Granville Col- 
lege and district secretary of the American Baptist Missionary 
Union he did a work which placed him in the front rank of the 
progressive Baptists of pioneer days. Rochester University 
honored him with D.D., and God gave him two sons—one of 
whom is a prominent Baptist and business man of Cincinnati, 
and the other is Wm. Arnold Stevens of Rochester Theological 
Seminary. 

Nor must we fail to mention G. F. Davis who likewise 
came all the way from New England to be present at this meet- 
ing. For eleven years he was pastor of the Baptist church in 
South Reading, Mass. Being desirous to know Latin and Greek, 
he studied these languages during the spare moments of a 
busy pastorate and walked at stated times to Boston to recite to 
Prof. Winchell, and to Francis Wayland, who was then pastor 
of the Baptist church. 

Not the least remarkable man in the convention was John 
Mason Peck, who, after studying a year under Dr. Stoughton 
in Philadelphia, was made a Western missionary of the board 
of the old Triennial Convention. July 25, 1817, he started for 
the scene of his labors, in a covered wagon, with a wife and three 
children, and after traveling a distance of 1,200 miles, on De- 
cember 1 reached St. Louis, his destination. 

He was easily one of the most influential men on the floor 
of this convention. The cause of the Western Baptists never had 
a more sagacious or successful laborer. He wrote the life of 
Daniel Boone for the American Biography Series edited by 
Jared Sparks, and Harvard College showed her estimate of his 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 45 


worth by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
in 1852. 

The presence of the Eastern brethren, gifted and cultured 
as they were, was significant. They were occupied at home with 
congenial tasks amid desirable surroundings. But they pos- 
sessed the spirit of their Lord—‘not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister’”—and obedience to this spirit brought them far 
hence to the needy West. 

The constructive spirit obtained among all who were present 
at this meeting. Whether learned or unlearned, they were 
characterized by a profound purpose to capture the new region 
for Christ and his cause. If any one was there possessed of the 
opposite spirit, he preserved a discreet silence. 

In taking our leave of the stalwart men who composed the 
membership of this body, it would perhaps be correct to say that 
the sentiment expressed by Nathan Cory as he left the meeting 
was expressive of the views entertained by all present. This 
aged minister of the gospel was the first person baptized in the 
Scioto country—Central Ohio—as then called. On the third 
day of the meeting he “arose and stated that he and some other 
brethren must now take leave of the meeting to return home; 
that he blessed God that he had lived to see and hear the pro- 
ceedings of the convention; that he felt assured that God would 
bless the meeting to the promoting of the cause of Christ in the 
Western states.” 

The Western Baptist Convention was short-lived. For six 
years it held annual sessions in Cincinnati. There was no 
meeting in 1839. The sessions of 1840 and 1841 were held in 
Louisville. By this time the object which had called it into 
being was almost secured, and the convention accordingly dis- 


solved. 
V. 
WESTERN BAPTIST EDUCATION SOCIETY. 


In the circular letter issued by the Cincinnati brethren 
proposing a General Meeting of Western Baptists, one of the 


46 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


subjects specified for discussion was ministerial education. At 
the first session on Monday afternoon J. M. Peck proposed for 
consideration three resolutions which were substantially as fol- 
lows: (1) that the convention rejoice in the blessings of God 
which have attended the establishment of Baptist schools of 
learning in some of the Western states and expresses its con- 
viction of the importance of such institutions in each state; 
(2) that it is essential to the interests of Western Baptists that 
a theological institution be established in some central portion 
of the Mississippi valley, and (3) “that a committee of five (5) 
be appointed to open correspondence on this subject, ascertain 
the views of the brethren, look out for a site for location, receive 
peers for funds or donations and report to the next conven- 
tion.” 

These resolutions, as has been stated, were offered by J. M. 
Peck. He knew from experience the disadvantages which over- 
take one, particularly a minister, who is not prepared for his 
work, and he was therefore anxious that the advantages denied 
himself might be extended to others. 

After some discussion the resolutions were laid on the table 
till the evening session. At that time they were taken up and 
discussed at length by Dr. Noel, Dr. Going, G. C. Sedgwick and 
others. Dr. Noel gave an account of the provisions and pros- 
pects for theological education at Georgetown College, Ky., 
and no doubt the claims of Granville College as a suitable place 
for training young ministers were also advanced. ‘That there 
was need for such an institution as contemplated in the resolu- 
tion was admitted, but there was an apprehension lest an at- 
tempt to establish it now would operate against schools, all of 
which were of recent establishment and which were struggling 
to secure a better existence. 

However an affirmative vote prevailed and in accordance 
with the third resolution a committee of five—S. M. Noel, J. M. 
Peck, 8. W. Lynd, E. Fisher and E. Robins—was appointed to 
prepare a report for the next annual convention. 

At the appointed time, Nov. 6, 1834, the committee present- 
ed its report. It was an able document, containing a thorough 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 47 


discussion of ministerial education as it applied to Western 
Baptists. The importance of it, the differences, prejudices and 
mistakes of Western Baptists on the subject, the right way to 
promote it—all these were entered into with a thoroughness in 
every way worthy of the heart and mind of J. M. Peck, who 
read the report and by whom it had been drawn up. 

The report states that the committee has been corresponding 
with the purpose of ascertaining the views of the brethren in 
different states, and finds that they accord in general with 
those of the committee. Also from their correspondence they 
learn that the only fear is that the proposed institution might 
“conflict with existing or projected institutions for purposes of 
general education.” 

Two locations had been proposed to the committee—Upper 
Alton, Ill., and Cincinnati. At the former place, Alton Sem- 
inary, estimated to be worth about $8,000, was offered the com- 
mittee on condition that the proposed institution be located 
there. With the Cincinnati location no offer of property was 
then made. 

The committee were persuaded “that the present circum- 
stances and wants of the denomination in the West call loudly 
and imperiously for a Western Baptist institution for the edu- 
cation of the gospel ministry and that a Western Baptist Educa- 
tion Society ought to be organized for the same purpose,” and 
hence they concluded their report by proposing for the consider- 
ation of the convention the following resolution, viz.: (1) 
That a Baptist Theological Institute ought to be established at 
some eligible point in the Western country and (2) that this 
committee be discharged and this whole matter be referred to 
a select committee. 


The report of the committee was received and adopted, the 
committee discharged and the select committee was chosen to 
whom the entire matter was referred. The select committee was 
of nineteen—nine from the Northwest, six from the Southwest, 
and four from the East. The Eastern brethren were Drs. Going 
of New York, Pattison of Rhode Island, Malcom of Mass- 
achusetts, and Welsh of New Jersey. 


48 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


After the appointment of the committee the following 
resolution was adopted: “That we consider the education of 
ministers highly important as a means of enabling them to 
exhibit appropriately and forcibly the truths of the gospel.” 
This was followed by a second resolution which indicates per- 
haps that there was a lingering suspicion lest, in the effort fo: 
an educated ministry, the emphasis should be put in the wrong 
place. This second resolution was as follows: “That in min- 
isterial education it should be a primary object to promote 
growth in grace and knowledge of Christ, and that to do this 
effectually, prayer and habitual devotion are indispensable.” 

The select committee now reported in favor of a Central 
Theological Institution and as auxiliary thereto recommended 
the immediate foundation of a- Western Baptist Education 
Society. Acting upon the advices of the committee the conven- 
tion adopted two resolutions, viz: (1) That the wants of the 
Mississippi valley require that we have an institution intended 
solely for the education of those whom the churches shall ap- 
prove as called of God to preach the gospel, and (2) That it is 
expedient that a Western Baptist Education Society be now 
formed. Accordingly, the form of a constitution was presented, 
adopteed and signed by a number of brethren present, and of 
those who signed the constitution, a committee was appointed to 
nominate a board of executive officers. ‘The preamble to the 
constitution recites, (1) the need of an improvement in the 
quality as well as an increase in the number of the Western 
Baptist ministry; (2) our gratitude to God that some of the 
Western states have establised schools for general education and 
with more or less reference to ministerial education; (3) the 
necessity of a theological institution of high character and (4) 
that it is the duty of the churches to receive as the gifts of God 
those whom he has called into the ministry, and to do all they 
can to increase their efficiency as laborers in the gospel. This 
end can best be gained by an association for the promotion 
of ministerial education. 

The Constitution of the Education Society consisted of six 
articles: 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 49 


Art. 1. The name: Western Baptist Education Society. 

Art. 2. Its object: The education of those who give evi- 
dence to the churches of a call to the ministry. 

Art. 3. Condition of Membership: The annual contribu- 
tion to its funds on the part of the individuals and annual col- 
lections for its objects from associations and churches. 

Art. 4. The Officers of the Society: These shall consist of 
(1) a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. (2) 
a Board of Directors, consisting of at least two members from 
each Western state, one member from each state of which a 
part lies west of the Alleghanies, and one member from each 
organized territory. 

Seven members of the board shall constitute a quorum. The 
board of directors shall choose an executive committee con- 
sisting of twelve members, five of whom shall be a quorum. 
This executive committee shall be a self-propagating body, 
shall make its own by-laws, and choose its own officers. 

It shall have entire control of all pecuniary concerns of 
the society. 

Ti shall judge of the qualifications of all applicants. 

It shall make an annual report to the society of its doings. 

It shall have power to take measures for the establishment 
of the Theological Institute contemplated by the convention, 
and in the event of its establishment shall have entire control 
of its management. 

A necessary provision of this article is that each officer of 
the society and each trustee and instructor of the Institute 
shall be a member of some Baptist church. 

Art. 5 provides for the annual meetings of the society. 

Art. 6 requires a two-third vote of the members present at 
any annual meeting to effect a change in the constitution. 
Except that the second article and the provision attached to 
the fourth article shall be forever inviolable. 

And so the Western Baptist Education Society was formed 
November 10, 1834, and it is but justice to state that to J. M. 
Peck and Jonathan Going is due the honor of its formation. 
From the time of Mr. Peck’s arrival in St. Louis, December 1, 


10) THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


1817, the cause of education had enlisted his sympathies. He 
saw in it a powerful auxiliary to the gospel and did all that he 
could to promote its advance. He had corresponded with 
brethren in the East relative to it and in 1826 had made a trip 
there ‘in behalf of measures for certain improvement”. He 
had gaind the sympathy of Dr. Going and hence the latter's 
presence at this and the preceding convention, at both of which 
he rendered invaluable service. 

In 1831 the Baptists of Ohio had voted to establish Gran- 
ville College, now Denison University. They were committed to 
it, were studious for its success, and hence jealous of any 
movement which seemed to stand in the way of its progress. 
Shortly after its establishment, it had suffered severe loss by 
fire and this misfortune elicited in a more pronounced way the 
sympathy of its friends, and made them more apprehensive 
lest the establishment of another school should withdraw needed 
assistance from it. Moreover the Cincinnati brethren had 
become enlisted in the Granville enterprise and now it was the 
Cincinnati brethren who were the chief promoters of the new 
institution proposed by the convention. Hence many of the 
Ohio Baptists outside of, as well as many in, Cincinnati were 
lukewarm in their advocacy of the new school. But when the 
Education Society was formed, all opposition from the Ohioans 
ceased and they became most zealous in promoting its interests. 
The officers of the new society were: S. W. Lynd, N. S. John- 
son and J. Stevens, respectively president, treasurer and sec- 
retary, and all three were residents of Cincinnati. Six vice- 
presidents were chosen, one each from the states of Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. The board 
of directors consisted of two brethren each from the states of 
Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, Mis- . 
souri, and one each from the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
Alabama, Arkansas and Michigan—making in all nineteen. 

The executive committee chosen by the board consisted of 
twelve—seven from Ohio, two from Kentucky and one each 
from Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri. Of,the seven from 
Ohio, six lived in Cincinnati. Lest the formation of the Edu- 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. oF 


cation Society, whose chief purpose was the establishment of a 
separate theological institution, should be construed as antag- 
onistic to the educational interests of the different Western 
states, these resolutions were passed by the convention recom- 
mending “to the confidence and support of the denomination 
both in the Eastern and Western States” the infant institution 
at Upper Alton, Illinois, and the Granville Literary and The 
ological Institution in Ohio. The Baptists of Indiana, Ala- 
bama, Tennessee and Michigan were commended for their 
efforts to establish literary and theological schools and the 
friends of religion and learning in other siates were encouraged 
to pursue the same course. 

The constitution of the society remained unchanged until 
the annual meeting at Cincinnati in 1838. The conclusion 
there reached to have biennial and not annual meetings of the 
convention made it necessary to erase the word “annually” in 
Art. 3. 

At the same time Article 5 was so changed as to provide 
for the regular meetings of the society on the second day of 
the convention, at which time the officers of the society should 
be chosen and the executive committee was empowered to fill 
any vacancy which might occur ju its body during the recess 
between the meetings of the cor. vention. 

Also in the fall of 1842 the following article was adopted in 
the place of the fourth and part of the fifth: “There shall be 
an annual meeting of the society, held at such time and place 
as shall have been agreed upon by a vote of the preceding 
annual meeting, at which time there shall be appointed a 
president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and twenty 
other persons who shall constitute a board of directors; out of 
which number the society shall designate twelve members, who 
shall be styled the executive committee, any five of whom 
shall be a quorum. Also special meetings of the society were 
to be called at any time at the discretion of the executive com- 
mittee.” 


52 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


VI. 
SELECTING AND IMPROVING A SITE. 


The executive committee very properly regarded the estab- 
lishment of a theological seminary as their chief duty and 
quite resolutely, yet cautiously and wisely, did they address 
themselves to their task. It is not always easy for a noble soul 
to be stirred to its best endeavor by a matter of transitory 
concern; but an enterprise which promises enduring good, 
which gives evidence that it will live to bless generations yet 
unborn after those who have brought it into existence have 
been forgotten—such an enterprise awakens enthusiasm and 
evokes the best energies of which the soul is capable. And thus 
was it with the executive committee as they faced the task to 
which their brethren had summoned them. In the establish- 
ment of a seminary on a sure basis there was a prospect of doing 
inestimable good; the brethren everywhere felt the need of it; 
in both conventions there was no evidence of the anti-mission- 
ary spirit, but the atmosphere seemed to be surchanged with the 
spirit of missions and education. In a word the omens were 
favorable and under these conditions the committee took up its 
task. Much depended upon securing the services of one quali- 
fied to act as general agent. It was evident that a mistake in this 
regard would bring about harm, while the services of the right 
man on the field would ‘awaken interest, inspire confidence, 
secure co-operation, insure caution,” and so hasten the success 
of the undertaking. A futile attempt was made to enlist Dr. 
Jonathan Going as general agent. Rev. Ezra Going, a brother 
of J. Going, was now in the West as a representative of the 
Home Mission Board, and he was induced to combine with 
his missionary efforts the duties of general agent. This was 
December 1, 1834. His labors began January 1 of the new year 
and he continued therein six months. Much of the winter was 
spent by him in visiting portions of Indiana, Ohio and Ken- 
tucky, comparing sites on both sides of the river, securing 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 53 


terms and seeking to enlist the co-operation of the brethren. 
He met with a cordial reception everywhere, as did also the ' 
cause which he represented. From the beginning a prominent 
object with the committee had been to secure the assistance of 
Kentucky in the enterprise. It lay wholly west of the Alle- 
ghanies, was separated from the Northwest by the Ohio which 
furnished an easy method of communication for those living on 
its opposite sides and in fact those living on both sides of the 
river had many things in common. In addition to this, Bap- 
tists in Kentucky were increasing numerically and prospering 
financially, and it would mean much for the infant enterprise 
should the sympathy and co-operation of this state be secured. 

The committee thought that the location of the seminary on 
the Kentucky side would surely contribute to that end, and 
hence they were from the first partial to the offers which were 
submitted from that side. Should a Kentucky site be chosen, 
it must be one not far removed from Cincinnati, since the ma- 
jority of the executive committee resided there, and regard 
must be had to the difficulties and inconveniences of travel. 
The first report made by the committee mentions four sites 
which were examined—one in Cincinnati and three in Ken- 
tucky; and one of those in Kentucky was the property of Gen. 
Zachary Taylor at Newport. 

The determination of the committee to choose a site in Ken- 
tucky provided certain conditions were complied with must 
have been made quite early, for at the meeting at which a gen- 
eral agent was chosen a resolution was also adopted that the 
committee would locate the institution at Covington or Newport 
on the basis of $40,000 if the leading friends of the cause in 
Kentucky would approve the plan and undertake to raise there- 
for the sum of $20,000—the rest to be raised elsewhere. 

In January, 1835, Reverends Going and Stevens went to 
‘Kentucky to submit to the Baptists there the above proposi- 
tion. Ata meeting held in Frankfort there were present quite 
a number of the friends of ministerial education. What the 
occasion was is not known, but that it was more than a local 
affair is evident. These brethren assembled in Frankfort on 


54 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


January 13, 1835, adopted two resolutions, in effect as follows: 
First, that they felt a great interest in the work and believed 
that the Kentucky Baptists could raise $25,000, and further- 
more they were ready to act in concert with the committee; and 
second, they recommended that the executive committee appoint 
an agent to raise the Kentucky amount. Likewise a resolution 
was adopted in Lexington by Baptists assembled there January 
21, 1835, in which it was agreed that the Kentucky churches 
could raise $25,000 “in forwarding this good work,” and cor- 
dial approbation of the plan was expressed. 

The method pursued by the executive committee in pro- 
curing a building site, erecting the necessary buildings and in 
compassing other objects required for a first-class theological 
seminary, reflects great credit upon their faith and business 
sagacity. They started without a dollar, single-handed and 
alone, which showed the measure of their faith, and in a few 
years they had amassed a property estimated at $200,000 or 
$300,000, which is an evidence of their good management. 
They relied ‘“‘on the importance of the undertaking, the interest 
felt in its accomplishments, and the blessing of heaven, to draw 
forth from the members of our churches and the community 
the requisite pecuniary aid.” 

It is only in recent years that our educational institutions 
have begun to feel the effects of the munificence of wealthy 
men. Seventy years ago it would have been idle to wait for 
contributions from Baptists untrained in the grace of giving, 
with which*to begin even the most laudable undertaking. 
Hence for the first seven years of its existence the Education 
Society which proposed to build a theological seminary had re- 
ceived in cash the sum of $188.50. 

Having decided to locate the institution on Kentucky soil, 
and hoping thereby to gain the hearty co-operation of Ken- 
tucky Baptists, the executive committee in May and June 1835 
purchased in the southern vicinity of Covington three tracts 
of land comprising 370 acres and aggregating in cost $33,250. 
The conditions upon which these purchases were made were 
that a cash payment be made immediately, the remaining 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 55d 


amounts to be paid in four or five annual payments with in- 
terest, and the original owners securing themselves by holding 
a mortgage on the property. 

This was not the case however with the smaller tract which 
was purchased for $5,000. There chanced to be in Cincinnati 
at that time a generous Baptist from Lynn, Mass., Jonathan 
Batcheller, who loaned to the executive committee the required 
amount at 6 per cent. interest and in appreciation of his loan 
he was presented with one acre of the tract. 

In July shortly after these purchases were made, the com- 
mittee sold to a citizen of Cincinnati ninety acres for $22,500, 
but out of the plot three acres were reserved for a church and a 
high school. The conditions of the sale were $10,000 in cash 
and ihe balance in four or five annual installments. 


Tor the next three years nothing was done beyond renting 
the lands for farming purposes. In the meantime, the com- 
mittee were making various attempts to secure some one who 
would prove a competent corresponding secretary and finan- 
cial azent of the society. Several prominent brethren had been 
impoituned to take the position, and in 1835 one of the execu- 
tive committee had visited the East in search of a suitable man; 
but these efforts had been to no purpose. During this period, 
though financial obligations were falling due, nothing was 
beiny done to improve the property and the rent for farming 
purposes was not sufficient to meet the interest on borrowed 
money. A report of the committee in October 1837, showed the 
totul indebtedness of the society to be $32,585, and its resources 
in notes and obligations to be $14,946 and 279 acres of land. 
This report made it evident that something must be done, and 
that quickly, else the enterprise would be ruined. It was under 
these circumstances that E. Robins, one of the executive com- 
mittee living in Cincinnati, was induced to assume the man- 
agement of the property and so attempt to extricate it from its 
embarrassment. Having a large insurance business in the city, 
it was at a personal sacrifice that he did this. Mr. Robins 
assumed his duties with an energy that betokened success. His 


D6 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


plan, which secured unanimous and hearty approval, was that 
the whole property be laid out in town lots and a regular 
system of public improvements be immediately begun. How- 
ever, an oblong square of twelve acres on the highest ground 
should be reserved, as was the intention from the first, for the 
various seminary buildings which it was proposed to erect. In 
1839 a public sale of lots produced $10,000; in 1840 there was 
another which yielded $5,000; a third in 1841 which brought 
in $11,000 and a private sale in the fall of the same year 
amounted to $3,000. In this way seventy-three acres were 
disposed of for $29,000, thus leaving 198 acres to be sold, not 
including the sites of twelve acres for the seminary buildings. 

In accordance with Mr. Robins’ plan, public improvements 
wece forthwith instituted. The public square was graded and 
enclosed with a neat fence, besides being embellished with a 
great variety of forest trees, evergreens and shubbery. When 
J. M. Peck visited the place in 1842 he “saw more than forty 
different species of shrubs and trees gathered from the adjacent 
forests to be transplanted on the college grounds.” Streets were 
graded, the erection of the seminary buildings was begun and 
improvements were in evidence on every hand. ‘The activity. 
thus manifested gave an earnest of the purpose of the executive 
committee to prosecute the enterprise with energy, and the 
purchasers were encouraged thereby to commence building and 
otherwise improving their property, and thus from that period 
the public and private improvements have been steadily ad- 
vencing. So that within three years, extending up to the pres- 
ent time (1840-43) about 150 buildings have been erected 
within two squares of the public grounds.” 

An interesting and useful appendage of the property and 
one which shows the completeness of the plans which the exec- 
utive committee had for the little city, of which the seminary 
was to be the center, was the Linden Grove Cemetery, located at 
the extreme southwestern limit of the whole tract. At the 
entrance to the cemetery stood the gardner’s lodge, a neat 
brick edifice, and near the center of the grounds was the 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 57 


receiving vault for the temporary deposit of bodies. The whole 
area of twenty-two acres was tastefully laid out and adorned 
with forest trees, shrubbery and evergreens. Adjoining it was 
another tract of thirty acres, mostly woodland, which, when 
necessary could be used for cemetery purposes. ‘The owners 
of the property hoped to make it one of the most beautiful 
cemeteries in the West. 


VII. 
WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


“Tn conformity with the power granted by the constitution 
of the Western Baptist Education Society, the executive com- 
mittee, having ‘taken measures’ as we have seen ‘for the es- 
tablishment of a theological institution’ and having witnessed 
the ‘success of such measures’ and determined the location, 
character and general principle of the institution’, proceeded to 
‘appoint its first trustees and to fix the terms of their offices’ in 
accordance with the constitution of the society. In the winter 
of 1839-40 the trustees applied for, and obtained a liberal 
charter from the Legislature of Kentucky under the style of 
the ‘Western Baptist Theological Institute of Covington, Ky.’, 
under which charter the trustees forthwith organized them- 
selves into a board and immediately afterwards the entire prop- 
erty held in trust by the Western Baptist Education Society, 
together with all its liabilities, was legally conveyed and trans- 
ferred to the trustees of ‘the Western Baptist Theological In- 
stitute.” 

The trustees of the Institute appointed by the executive 
committee and recognized in the charter were seven in number 
and were as follows: H. Wingate and C. Johnson, of Ken- 
tucky; E. Robins, 8. W. Lynd, J. Stevens and T. Lewis, of 
Ohio; and J. L. Holman, of Indiana. It will be observed that 
the Ohio trustees constitute a majority of the board. They 


08 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


were entitled to it since they had launched the enterprise and 
had borne the responsibility of all the financial burdens which 
had been incurred. Those who put most into anything are 
entitled to most share in its conduct. And so after six years a 
theological institution, the desire of many hearts, begins to 
emerge out of the realm of the possible into that of the prob- 
able, but it will be six years yet before it can be called a fact. 

Mr. Robins was ‘elected superintendent of the property in 
1838, under appointment of the executive committee, but after 
the property passed into the hands of the trustees of the West- 
ern Baptist Theological Institute, February 5, 1840, he con- 
tinued to serve in the same capacity. And it was while serving 
under the trustees as superintendent that the improvements 
mentioned above were accomplished by him. Pressure of 
private business caused Mr. Robins now to resign the superin- 
tendency, and when both Dr. Dillard and Dr. T. S. Malcom of 
Kentucky refused the position, it was offered to Rev. O. N. 
Sage, and by him accepted. 


The property of the Institute is again coming into sore 
financial straits. The first report of the trustees, May 5, 1843, 
shows the total outstanding indebtedness of the Institute to be 
$17,000. ‘To offset this the Institute has unsold town lots, 
cemetery lots and woodland property, a moderate estimate of 
which amounts to $111,000. Of the debt of $17,000, $5,000 
is due immediately and $5,000 more will be due in a year 
hence. If this amount, $10,000, can be secured, the property 
of the Institute can be relieved of all embarrassment. The 
remaining $7,000 can be deferred and paid from the proceeds 
of property at good prices. Up to this time the trustees had 
made no appeal to the liberality of the denomination, but the 
exigencies of the situation now compel them to that course. 
Unless help is immediate, they would be forced to dispose of 
much of the property at a sacrifice. They were loath to do 
this since their purpose was to hold the lots until they would 
command a good price and then invest the proceeds in the 
endowment of professorships and of a theological library. A 
sale of lots at this juncture would interfere seriously with this 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 59 


plan, which, the trustees were persuaded, was of immense im- 
portance. It was at this time that the trustees inaugurated, or 
attempted to inaugurate, a series of collecting agencies in the 
Northwest, Southwest and East. They were under the con- 
viction that something of this kind would be necessary to the 
endowment of one or two professorships. It was now time for 
the brethren in Frankfort and Lexington who had passed the 
encouraging resolutions in January 1835, to give substantial 
evidence of their sympathy. One agent spent a few months 
in Alabama chiefly, but his cash collections barely covered his 
salary and expenses, while another spent two years in Tennessee, 
Mississippi and Louisiana, and collected in cash a few hundred 
dollars beyond his expense and salary. His subscription re-- 
ceived in those states amounting to $10,000, was never paid. 
It was under these circumstances that Mr. Sage entered upon 
the discharge of his duties as superintendent of the property 
and financial manager. The outlook was not an encouraging 
one. Property values had decreased almost to a vanishing 
point, creditors were clamorous for their money and the credit 
of the Institute was prostrate. By the sale of lots, obtaining 
loans, securing accommodations at the bank, using his own 
credit, and also by his conciliating course and punctuality to 
meet every engagement, it was not long before he had “‘restored 
the credit of the Institute and good feeling among its creditors.” 


Vill. 
THE INSTITUTE IN OPERATION—1845-1848. 


As has been stated the beginnings of the Institute are to be 
found in the Western Baptist Convention which met in Cin- 
cinnati in 1833. It was chartered in 1840 and was opened in 
1845. The reasons for this seeming delay are obvious. The 
trustees began without a dollar. Less than $200 had been con- 
tributed to the Western Baptist Education Society, and this had 
been expended in meeting the necessary expenses of the Society. 


60 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the trustees and 
their financial agents for the shrewd business qualities mani- 
fested by them in the prosecution of the enterprise. It will 
be remembered that they were relying upon the increase in 
value of the land purchased by them for the possession of 
funds with which to erect the necessary buildings and provide, 
if possible, endowment for the professorships. ‘They were de- 
cidedly averse to the sale at a sacrifice of their valuable property 
or of any part of it, but chose to wait until the improved 
financial condition of the country would make it to their ad- 
vantage to sell. We must not forget that the trustees had to 
face the distressing condition which prevailed during Van 
Buren’s administration. By the skillful management of their 
two financial agents they had overcome the most embarrassing 
situation—they had laid off in town lots the land which they 
had bought, they had built fences, constructed sidewalks, 
opened and graded and paved the streets, adorned the property 
with ornamentl shrubbery and in less than a dozen years its 
value had advanced from $35,000 to $500,000. 

For two or three years before the Institute opened, the 
buildings for the accommodation of students and professors 
were completed, but the trustees were moving cautiously lest the 
opening of the Institute, on account of financial embarrassment, 
should be soon followed by its close. 

Let us notice the buildings of the Institute. They were 
three: The president’s home or mansion, the professor’s resi- 
dence and the Theological Seminary Building. The first two 
buildings were a part of the purchases made in the summer of 
1835. ‘They had been previously used as the residence of the 
owners of the property, and were constructed after the fashion 
which obtained in the South in ante-bellum days. The presi- 
dent’s home, for example, had two stories and a basement, was 
82 feet in length and 34 feet in width. After needed repairs and 
slight alteration it was valued at $6,500. 

The professor’s home was a substantial brick building, two 
stories in height, though not so extravagant in its dimensions 
as the former. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 61 


The Theological Building occupied the center of an oblong 
tract of twelve acres. It was 120 feet in length, 46 feet in 
width and four stories high. There were 48 rooms for students. 
The chapel and recitation rooms were on the first floor. 

The cost was $20,000, and was provided for out of a public 
sale of lots into which the property was divided. 

J. T. Roberts, who was then pastor of the Baptist church at 
Covington, has left an interesting account of the exercises 
connected with the laying of the corner-stone of the The- 
ological Building on Monday afternoon, August 3, 1840. A 
procession was formed in the city, and, accompanied by two 
bands of musicians marched to the property of the Institute, 
more than a mile distant. Addresses were made by Dr. Lynd, 
then pastor in Cincinnati; by Prof. Calvin E. Stowe of Lane 
Theological Seminary, and by Dr. Briggs, President of the 
College of Cincinnati. The corner-stone was laid with becoming 
ceremony, the benediction pronounced “and the company re- 
turned in procession with the two bands of musicians who were 
in attendance to give additional interest to the services.” 

Harly in 1844 the trustees determined to open the Insti- 
tute in the fall of the next year, and proceeded therefore to the 
selection of a competent faculty. It was their purpose to have 
men who were not only qualified for their work, but who 
would be acceptable to both sections of the country—North 
and South. At least three prominent ministers in the South 
were approached with a view to the presidency, but they de- 
clined being candidates. Then the board turned to the North 
and elected Dr. Barnas Sears of Newton, but he also declined. 
After making more appointments, which were declined, the 
board unanimously elected Dr. R. E. Pattison, president and 
professor of Christian Theology; Rev. A. Drury was chosen 
professor of Greek and Rev. Ebenezer Dodge was elected pro- 
fessor of Hebrew and Ecclesiastical History. ‘These three con- 
stituted the faculty for the first year and then Rev. Ezekiel 
Gilman Robinson accepted the position vacated by Prof. Dodge 
and thus the faculty remained for two years. Prof. J. L. Rey- 
nolds at that time of Mercer University, was given an opportun- 


62 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


ity of being a member of the first faculty. In the summer of 
1844 he was sought after for the chair of Biblical Criticism and 
Interpretation, but declined. It was thus evident from the 
start that Southern men were not favorably disposed toward the 
Institute. The president of the Institute, R. E. Pattison, D.D., 
was a native of Vermont and, at the time of his election to the 
presidency, was in the prime of life, being not quite forty-five 
years of age. He stood second in a class of forty in Amherst 
College and, after his graduation, became tutor in Columbian 
College, Washington, D C., and then professor of Mathematics 
in Waterville College, now Colby University, Maine, and later 
became president of the college, serving in that capacity six 
years. He had been pastor at Salem, Mass., and at Providence, 
R. I. He relunctantly resigned his Providence pastorate to 
become secretary of the Home Department of the American 
Baptist Missionary Union, and in this relation he was frequently 
in the West, thus becoming conversant with its needs and diffi- 
culties. He was present at the Cincinnati convention in 1833, 
and also at subsequent conventions in Cincinnati and Louis- 
ville. He was therefore not a stranger to the conditions which 
he faced when he came to Covington as president of the Insti- 
tute. Here, owing to the difficulties which arose in connection 
with his administration, he remained only three years. On 
leaving Covington, he was professor in Newton six years, pro- 
fessor of Theology in Shurtleff College the same length of 
time and after serving as professor in Union Baptist Theological 
Seminary at Chicago four years he died at the home of his 
son in St. Louis in 1874. In the Hast he was not regarded as 
a friend but rather as a foe to the abolitionists who disliked him 
because of his conservative attitude on the subject of slavery. 
As time went on it may be that he, as well as many others, 
saw there could be no neutral ground on that vexed question 
and consequently all who were not for it were looked upon as 
against it. There does not seem to be any doubt but that had 
he been more cautious and tactful while at Covington, the 
asperities of the situation would have been considerably miti- 
gated. Dr. E. G. Robinson in his autobiography published 


9 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 63 


nearly fifty years later, speaks of him as “genial, warm- 
hearted and frank, a most agreeable colleague, both as professor 
and pastor.” Dr. Robinson also says that “his mind had a sin- 
gular capacity for forgetfulness.” This mental characteristic 
may explain largely the contradictory attitudes which were at- 
tributed to him during the Covington troubles. 


Ebenezer Dodge, the professor of Hebrew and Ec. History, 
was only twenty-six years of age when he assumed his duties. 
A graduate of both Brown and Newton, coming from the latter 
to Covington, he then began his career as a theological teacher 
and as such achieved eminent success at Hamilton, Madison, 
Rochester and Newton. After one year of service he resigned 
and his successor was Ezekiel Gilman Robinson. Surely these 
were not ordinary men who composed the first faculty of the 
Institute. With buildings and endowment which were, to say 
the least, unusual at that time, with such young giants as Dodge 
and Robinson, in the midst of a rapidly growing section, if the 
surroundings had been propitious, what might not the result 
have been? But it was decided otherwise. Prof. Robinson, 
like Dr. Pattison, was not unacquainted with Southern soil or 
sentiment. As pastor of the Baptist church at Norfolk for two 
years and Chaplain to the University of Virginia one session, 
he had enjoyed exceptional opportunity for acquiring a knowl- 
edge of Southern people. The following extract from a letter of 
Dr. Pattison to Dr. Lynd will show Prof. Robinson’s attitude on 
the all-absorbing topic. ‘Robinson is an exceedingly upright 
and independent man. I doubt not that he is anti-slavery, 
but he is anti-abolition even to severity and as I sometimes 
think uncalled for. I rebuked him with reference to his gen- 
eral views on this subject. I thought if any one could secure 
the confidence of the Southwest at this point, without becoming 
a slave-holder, he could.” He too was a Brown and a Newton 
man. His acquaintance with Dr. Pattison began at Providence 
when the latter was pastor of the Baptist church at the time that 
the former was a student at Brown. It was upon the recom- 
mendation of Dr. Wayland that Prof. Robinson became Dodge’s 
successor. 


64 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


The third member of the faculty was Rev. Asa Drury, who 
had formerly taught in the College of Cincinnati, and for two 
or three years had been pastor of the Covington Baptist church. 
He was professor of Greek but his chief duties were as principal 
of the preparatory department of the Institute. This was the 
literary arm of the Institute where candidates for the ministry 
might acquire training which would better prepare them for 
theological studies. The privileges of this department how- 
ever, were opened to other than ministerial students. It seems 
to have been quite successful. During the first three years there 
was an average attendance of about fifty, only eleven of whom 
for that period were applicants for the ministry. 

During this period, 1845-48, there were enrolled in the 
theological department of the Institute twenty-six students, 
distributed as follows: 17 from Ohio, 2 from New York, one 
each from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maine, and 
3 from the South. Of the Southern students two were from 
Kentucky and one from Mississippi. Three students would 
hardly seem to be a fair representation from the South, and 
yet when in 1848 the Kentucky trustees were seeking to justify 
their attempt to exclusive control, they declared that “up to the 
summer of ’47 the South had, under the circumstances, a 
fair representation of students in the institution.” It depends 
upon one’s conception of “fair”. During the session of 1847- 
48 there were no students who entered the Institute from the 
South. In May 1847 the American Baptist Missionary Union 
which was the channel through which Northern Baptists con- 
ducted their benevolent enterprises, met in Cincinnati, and the 
faculty of the Institute became members of it. For this reason 
Dr. R. T. Dillard, who was one of the Kentucky trustees, and 
was regarded as one of the most prudent and conservative men 
in the denomination, withdrew his son from the Institute. As 
another evidence of Southern sentiment, it may be mentioned 
that three or four Baptist ministerial students who graduated 
from Georgetown College in 1845 went to Princeton for theo- 

logical study. 

If the Institute was fortunate in its faculty, it was none the 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 65 


less so in the quality of the students who sought instruction 
there. They may have been few in numbers but they were 
men who “have stamped their brightness on the face of time”. 
In the second graduating class there were, among others, Wil- 
liam Moore, who went to preach the gospel among the Karens 
in Burmah. Failing health brought him back to America, 
where “with an unblemished reputation he filled up the measure 
of his days” and died in 1880; N. M. Wood, who returning to 
his native state, Maine, preached the gospel there with great 
suecess for twenty-one years and then came West to preach and 
teach theology in Shurtleff College. He was considered ‘‘a ser- 
monizer of great power,’ and Colby bestowed upon him the 
doctorate. He died in 1876; and Rufus C. Burleson, who 
less than a dozen years ago concluded a career of extraordinary 
activity and usefulness in the Lone Star state. Coming to 
Texas when that state was in a formative period he did much 
to east it in a Christian mold. He baptized Mrs. Dickenson, 
the heroine of the Alamo, and Gen. Sam Houston, the hero of 
San Jacinto. The most eminent men of the state were his 
pupils and friends and thus hardly did any sphere of life in 
Texas escape his touch. A bronze monument on the campus of 
Baylor University attests his fifty years of service as president of 
that institution, but a more enduring monument is that which 
shows itself in the position to which his denomination has at- 
tained and in the cause of Christian education to which he gave 
without stint the best that was in him. 

The third, and in one sense the last, graduating class of 
the institute had in it two men of unusual power. The first of 
these, John Rathbone Downer: had previously gradauted from 
Madison University and after leaving Covington, spent six 
years as a pastor in Ohio and Pennsylvania and then for thir- 
teen years was professor in Granville College. In 1891 he was 
still living in Philadelphia, enjoying the repose which a useful 
and fruitful career confers. 

The second and the most distinguished of all is William 
Ashmore, the missionary statesman of our denomination and 
one of the greatest missionaries of all times. He has seen 


66 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


fifty years of service in China and now past eighty years of 
age his face is still toward the rising sun, his eyes undimmed 
and natural powers unabated. 

It will be interesting at this point to notice the Rules and 
the Course of Study of the Institute. 

A comparison of the catalogues of the Western Baptist Theo- 
logical Institute and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 
will reveal some interesting points of divergence. In the In- 
stitute there was only one course of study, denominated The 
Regular Course, which occupied two years, and no student was 
admitted to the Institute who would not sign the following 
declaration in the presence of the faculty: “I hereby declare 
that it is my purpose, Divine Providence permitting, to com- 
plete the regular course of studies in this Institute.” Nor was 
approbation by the church of which he was a member sufficient 
for an applicant’s admission, but in addition he was examined 
by the facuity in relation to his Christian experience and call 
to the ministry. 

“No student is allowed to preach, at any time without the 
knowledge and sanction of the faculty.” 

“Tf any student shall marry, during his connection with the 
Institute, he shall be dismissed.” 

“The students shall assemble every morning and evening 
for social worship, at such hours as the faculty shall appoint.” 

These restrictions would prove embarrassing to many theo- 
logical students of the present day. 

The course of study, though differently arranged was not 
altogether unlike that which now prevails in theological schools. 

There were four departments: Biblical Literature and In- 
terpretation, Ecclesiastical History and Greek Literature, The- 
ology including Biblical and Systematic Theology and Eyvi- 
dences of Christianity, and Pastoral Theology which embraced 
Homiletics, Pastoral Duties, Ecclesiology and exercises in Com- 
position and Elocution. 


(or) 
~I 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


IX. 
SOUTHERN ALOOFNESS. 


Despite the location of the Intitute on Southern soil, it 
was greeted with suspicion by the bulk of Southern Baptists 
and from the day that ita doors were opened to students it gave 
promise of being a disturbing and not a unifying element 
among Western Baptists. This promise, unhappily, was ere 
long fulfilled. 

The cause of this aloofness on the part of the Southern 
element of the denomination was to be found in what seemed 
to them the unnecessarw importance given to the agitation of 
slavery. Until its extinction by the war of 1861-65, slavery 
had been the “Banquo’s ghost” of our national life. The 
slave states were doing their utmost to hold in abeyance all 
discussion of it and the free states were as resolute to keep it 
always in the public eye. 

Those who are removed several decades from this period of 
agitation and civil strife can have only an inadequate concep- 
tion of the strained relations which then obtained between the 
two sections of our country. These strained relations, as has 
been intimated, exhibited themselves in religious as well as 
in secular concerns and hence shortly before and ‘after the open- 
ing of the Institute there were not wanting evidences which 
could be easily construed by a jealous people as an attempted 
invasion of their constitutional rights. Let us notice some 
of these occurrences. 

For thirty years, 1815-1845, the Triennial Convention was 
the medium through which the Baptists North and South ef- 
fected their missionary designs—Home and Foreign. In the 
early years of its existence, so pronounced was the need for co- 
operative effort that the attempts to introduce matters about 
which there were honest differences of opinion were met with 
decided opposition from both sides. As the years went by, the 
unremitting efforts of the agitators of anti-slavery began to 


68 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


produce the desired effect on both secular and religious pur- 
suits and hence there arose an element in the Triennial Con- 
vention which began to oppose stoutly the recognition of slave- 
holding Baptists as associates in missionary work. ‘This ele- 
ment, receiving almost no encouragement in the convention, 
was nevertheless undeterred in its purpose and in May 1843, 
in Tremont Temple, Boston, organized ‘The American and 
Foreign Missionary Society.” This society was to be “distinctly 
and thoroughly separated from all connection with the known 
evils of slavery,’ and was to be composed ‘‘of members who are 
not slave-holders but who believe that involuntary slavery 
under all circumstances is sin and treat it accordingly.” 

This society had the cordial support of the abolitionists and 
it was evident that every effort would be made to weaken the 
allegiance which bound other Northern Baptists to the Trien- 
nial Convention. 

It was the policy of the Triennial Convention to be entirely 
neutral on the subject of slavery but it soon became evident 
that this neutrality was assumed and not real. The convention 
had never appointed a Southerner as a missionary and there 
were those who said that it never would. A test case soon 
decided the attitude of the appointing board. In 1844 the 
executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention ap- 
plied to the executive committee of the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society for the appointment to missionary service of 
James E. Reeve, a slave-holder, and accompanied their appli- 
cation with a proposition to supply the funds for his support 
in case of appointment. The Georgia board urged his ap- 
pointment on the ground that it would stop the cavils of those 
who insisted that the declaration of neutrality on the part of 
the society was mere declaration and nothing more. Various 
were the conjectures in regard to the result, and the suspicion 
of Southern Baptists was no little awakened when in October, 
1844, the executive board through its corresponding secretary, 
handed down its decision and the appointment was refused. 

In the same year there was made public a letter containing 
the extreme of anti-slavery views, the author of which was 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 69 


Francis Mason, a missionary in the employment of the Baptist 
board of Foreign Missions, located in Savoy, Burmah. Noth- 
ing illustrates better the efforts of the abolitionists to compass 
sea and land for purposes of proselytism than the circumstances 
which gave rise to this letter of Mr. Mason. In 1842 Lewis 
Tappan, treasurer of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society, addressed a circular to Mr. Mason seeking to enlist his 
sympathies in the anti-slavery movement and inviting subscrip- 
tions for the escape of runaway slaves. Mr. Mason hesitated 
for over a year as to the course he should pursue until a present 
of a suit of clothes sent him by a slave-holding church caused 
him to decide the matter. He accordingly wrote to Mr. Tappan, 
expressing virulent opposition to slavery and characterizing 
it as “the foulest blot on the American flag,” “the greatest sin 
that ever clothed itself under the cover of Christianity,” and 
after expressing hope that “it will be brought down by the 
force of Christian principles,” he proceeded to demonstrate his 
conception of that principle as well as to give a practical evi- 
dence of his sympathy with the object of the Anti-Slavery 
Society in the following words: “I have therefore the pleasure 
to enclose an order for $10 on our Treasurer which I will thank 
you to pay over to the committee in New York to assist in the 
escape of runaway slaves.”. In view of the neutrality professed 
by the board it seemed strange to Southern Baptists that Mr. 
Mason should be retained as a missionary, and since he was 
being supported in part by Southern funds the conviction 
began to seize upon them that under the circumstances it 
would not be consistent with fairness for any further contri- 
bution to go from them into the Boston treasury. 

The climax of these occurrences came in the fall of 1844. 
Although the Triennial Convention and its board at its last 
session in Philadelphia had resolved by an overwhelming ma- 
jority that ‘“‘we disclaim all sanction, either expressed or implied, 
whether of slavery or of anti-slavery,” yet there was a sincere 
desire on the part of Southern Baptists to know how far the 
spirit of the resolution would.be adhered to by the board. Ac- 
cordingly the Alabama Baptist State Convention in its annual 


79 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


session of 1844 addressed a series of resolutions to the Boston 
board requesting an explicit answer to the question whether 
slave-holders, otherwise unexceptionable and worthy, could re- 
ceive appointment from the board. On December 17, 1844, 
the Boston board through its president and recording secre- 
tary issued a negative reply to the Alabama resolution. The 
acting board regarded that the issue had been thrust upon 
them but with “all frankness, kindness and respect defined 
their position.” The essence of their reply is contained in the 
following: “If any one should offer himself as a missionary, 
having slaves, and should insist on retaining them as his 
property, we could not appoint him. One thing is certain: 
We can never be a party to any arrangement which would imply 
approbation of slavery.” 

As a result of this stroke the Southern Baptist Convention 
was organized in Augusta, Ga., in May, 1845, and from that 


time to this the Northern and Southern Baptists have operated 
through their respective channels. 

Many of the Northern brethren were displeased at this reply 
of the acting board and designated it as unwise, unauthorized, 
unnecessary and inconsistent. There was a general opinion 
that the Alabama resolution should ‘have been submitted to a 
full meeting of the board in called or regular session or else 
referred to the convention in triennial session. This reply of 
the acting board to the Alabama resolution had a direct 
bearing upon the Institute. The trustees were desirious that the 
Institute should begin operation in the fall of 1845 and took 
measures to that end. Early in January, about two weeks 
after the Boston board had given its answer to the Alabama 
resolution Dr. R. E. Pattison was elected president of the 
Institute and soon thereafter came to Covington to prepare for 
the opening session. Now it happened that Dr. Pattison was a 
member of the Boston board that rendered the famous reply 
to the Alabama resolution and, in view of the excited state 
of the public mind, John L. Waller on May 5, 1845, addressed 
an open letter calling upon Dr. Pattison to define himself “in 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 71 


relation to the document put forth by the board.” This placed 
Dr. Pattison in an undesirable position. Should he announce 
himself in sympathy with that document he would alienate the 
Southern and Southwestern element which he was endeavoring 
to rally to the support of the Institute. If on the other hand 
he should pronounce himself as opposed to it, the inevitable 
result would be the withdrawal of Northern men and money 
by which the Institute had been brought thus far and without 
which ultimate success, he feared, could not be attained. 
Should he act in compliance with Waller’s call, he would be 
compelled to array himself and the Institute on one side 
or the other of the vexed question and so contravene the pur- 
pose of its founders, which was that it be a school for all Bap- 
tists west of the Alleghany Mountains. There were many even 
in the South, disposed to censure Mr. Waller for thus handi- 
capping Dr. Pattison at the inception of his duties and among 
them was J. M. Peck, who said that Dr. Waller had called upon 
Dr. Pattison “to do what no Christian man or gentleman in 
your circumstances ought to have done.”’ For the reason above 
stated, Dr. Pattison declined to make a public reply, but wrote 
a personal letter to Dr. Waller in which his position was defined. 
Dr. Waller expressed himself as satisfied with Dr. Pattison’s 
reply and was sure that it would have been satisfactory to the 
public, had it been made known. Anxious to remove every 
obstacle that might injure the Institute, the trustees at a special 
meeting on August 14, 1845, deemed it wise to issue a circular 
relative to the question put to Dr. Pattison in which they an- 
nounced “that Dr. Pattison did not vote for or approve the 
resolution of the Board of Missions at Boston.” It developed 
that Dr. Pattison was not present at that meeting of the board, 
being detained therefrom by sickness. 

Dr. Pattison was likewise suspected of being the author of 
an anonymous letter to John Bushyhead. Bushyhead was a 
highly respected Indian Baptist preacher, a missionary of the 
Board of Foreign Missions and a slave-holder. This latter cir- 
cumstance being distasteful.to the Boston board, his resigna- 
tion as a missionary was consequently procured, and there were 


72 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


those who believed that Dr. Pattison was largely instrumental 
in procuring it. But this circular put forth by the board 
declared that “they have also ascertained that he (Dr. Pattison) 
is not the author of a letter to Mr. Bushyhead, nor to any 
friend of his to confer with him, in relation to the subject of 
slavery.” 

That this action of the board did not satisfy Kentucky Bap- 
tists is evident from.the following resolution adopted by them 
at a meeting of the General Association in Georgetown, Octo- 
ber 1845. ‘Resolved, That in the opinion of this Association, 
the Western Baptist Theological Institute ought not, under pres- 
ent circumstances, to receive the support of the Baptists of Ken- 
tucky.” The Kentucky Baptists being close to the scene of 
action and their two editors, Waller and Buck, expressing them- 
selves from time to time in no uncertain tones, it was to be 
expected that their attitude would prescribe the course for other 
Baptists in the South and Southwest who lived at distances 
more remote. 

It will have been observed that the above occurrences took 
place before the Institute opened and that they were of such a 
character as to alienate the Southern people and perhaps render 
them unfriendly to Northern institutions. Nor did this feeling 
abate after the Institute had opened. With the dissolution 
of the Triennial Convention the Northern Baptists had formed 
the American Baptist Missionary Union as the channel of their 
missionary enterprises. In May 1847, the Union held its an- 
nual session in Cincinnati and the president of the Institute 
with thetwo professors—Robinson and Drury—became members 
of it. Thus in the minds of the Southern Baptists the pro- 
fessors and along with them the Institute were becoming more 
and more identified with the Northern side. If, thought they, 
the policy of neutrality on the slavery issue were to be main- 
tained, then why should the president and professors of the 
Institute join the Missionary Union and not- the Southern 
Baptist Convention? Would it not have been wiser for them to 
have refrained from membership in both bodies or else to have 
become members of both? 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 73 


In September of the same year—1847—the Miami Asso- 
ciation in which the Cincinnati churches are located, held its 
annual session and the Institute president and professors were 
present. This association passed a series of nine resolutions 
on different topics. ‘The seventh resolution provided for an 
endorsement of the Western Baptist Theological Institute and 
it was passed after discussion by Dr. Pattison and others. Dr. 
Pattison then withdrew from the house. The eighth resolution 
contained a condemnation of slavery and after discussion was 
passed. Prof. Robinson, though, was not present during any 
part of the session at which the resolutions were adopted. The 
presence, however, of these two gentlemen at the association 
was equivalent, in the opinion of some south of the Ohio, to an 
acquiescence in the anti-slavery resolution and hence rendered 
their opposition to the Institute more and more pronounced. 

During the session of 1846-47 there occurred an incident 
in Columbian College, Washington, D. C., which showed the 
tendency of even the conservative Northern element and at the 
same time confirmed the Southern people in their course. Capt. 
Thomas Haynes, a Virginian and a slaveholder, had been 
elected steward of the boarding department in the above named 
college. According to the custom of the times, slaves, when 
going from one state to another, were required to be registered. 
Capt. Haynes desired to carry with him two of his servants and 
before repairing to Washington sought the advice of an attorney 
who told him that registration was not necessary. After Capt. 
Haynes and his two slaves had been in Washington several 
months, it became known to some of the Northern students that 
the slaves were not registered and one of them took steps to 
procure their release. He therefore gave one of the slaves a 
note to an ‘attorney and also provided him with money to pay 
the :.ttorney’s fee. This being communicated to Mr. Haynes, 
he resigned his position and with his slaves returned to Vir- 
ginia. The student guilty of this interference, was, upon an 
investigation of his conduct, dismissed from the college. This 
student was not a beneficiary of the Northern Baptist Education 
Society, but that did not prevent the acting board of the so- 


74 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


ciety at its meeting in April, 1847, from passing a resolution 
proscribing Columbian College as a slavery institution where 
“there is reason to fear that the purity and freedom of our 
beneficiaries may be jeopardized”’ and notifying the beneficiaries 
of the board, that, if they remained in Columbian, “no appro- 
priation could be made for their benefit after the close of the 
present collegiate year.” Although the action of the board 
was not unanimous, yet it was ratified by the Education Society 
in its annual meeting of a few months later. 

It was also believed by the Southern Baptists that the pur- 
pose of the Northern Baptists was to secure gradually entire 
control over the Institute with the desire of making it a center 
for the dissemination of anti-slavery views throughout the 
entire Southwest. To this opinion Dr. R. B. ©. Howell 
gave emphatic expression. It was his belief that just as the 
Free Communion Baptists of England had begun their work 
of proselyting by gaining control over all the Baptist schools, 
thus educating all the young ministers and thoroughly imbuing 
them with their principles until the Baptist churches through- 
out the kingdom had been brought within their ranks, so, he 
thought, it was not clear that our anti-slavery brethren were 
not pursuing the same policy. “If they are not, then how came 
it to pass that we have this anti-slavery seminary in a slave 
state, which desires to educate all our Southern young min- 
isters?” 

There were not wanting however, expressions from South- 
ern sympathizers concerning the character of the views which 
were taught there. Rufus C. Burleson, of Alabama, who grad- 
uated from the Institute in 1847, assures the people of the 
South in a letter to the S. W. Baptist Chronicle, 5-7-’47, that the 
Institute “is not unfriendly to the South,” that he is “a South- 
erner by birth, education and feeling,” that he has been there 
“for two years,” has watched everything with the utmost scru- 
tiny and, says he, “I believe this is as safe a place to educate the 
young ministers of the South as any other.” J. M. Frost chen 
pastor of the Baptist church at Covington and a steadfast friend 
of the South, in a letter to the Tennessee Baptist, August 25, 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 7d 


1847, was firm in the persuasion that “Bible truth was taught 
in that institution, unmixed with any of the ultra notions of 
the North or anything inconsistent with Southern institu- 
tions.” 

Doubtless the attitude of the Kentuckians toward the In- 
stitute was to some extent determined by their interest in 
Georgetown College, for the success of which they were natur- 
ally solicitous. According to the custom of the times, every 
denominational institution made some attempt toward provision 
for theological instruction. Georgetown was no exception to 
the rule. The establishment of a well-endowed theological 
school only a few miles distant, with competent instructors, a 
full course of study, commodious buildings and ample pe- 
cuniary assistance for all who should come would interfere no 
litile with the purposes of Georgetown to compass the same end. 

Moreover, the establishment of the preparatory department 
of the Institute might lessen the patronage which would other- 
wise go to the Academy of Georgetown College. 

Tt will also be remembered that, at the first two meetings 
of the convention, the only objection to the establishment of 
a theological institution arose from the apprehension that 
thereby the well-being of existing infant institutions would be 
imperiled. In order to show that the least feeling of hostility 
toward existing educational enterprises was altogether foreign 
to the purposes of those who were championing the movement 
for a separate theological school, the convention passed the 
three resolutions to which attention has already been directed— 
commending in no doubtful spirit the Baptist institutions at 
Upper Alton, Ill., and at Granville, Ohio, and also praising the 
efforts which were being made by the brethren in Indiana, 
Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan to establish similar institu- 
tions. In these resolutions there is no word of praise for George- 
town College, not even a reference to her. This seems strange. 
Was Georgetown to be regarded with indifference? Was her 
presence a menace to the proposed institution? Was there 
not sufficient room on Kentucky soil for both enterprises? 
Were the Kentucky Baptists alone expected to sacrifice their 


76 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


desires and places for a state school in order that an institution 
vi a general character might be established? 

And was the failure on the part of the resolutions to recog- 
nize Georgetown College—whether intentional or not—in any 
wise responsible for the later attitude of Kentucky Baptists 
toward the Institute? 

Kentucky, being a border state, was from that circumstance 
more sensitive to the prevailing conditions. Nor must we think 
that the Golden Rule afforded the principle of action to one 
side or the other in those trying times. It gave way more than 
once to the law of retaliation. Dr. Howard Maleom, who for ten 
years had been a most acceptable president of Georgetown Col- 
lege, was forced in August 1849, to yield to popular clamor and 
resion his position because he had voted for the emancipatios. 
candidates for Congress. Dr. Dillard, an ardent Southerner ana a 
Kentuckian, for the same act was compelled to resign his trus- 
teeship in the same institution. 

it was into an atmosphere of this kind that the Western 
Baptist Theological Institute at its birth was placed and by 
which during its entire existence it was surrounded, an atmos- 
phere surcharged with the most intense sectional feeling, which 
had been gathering volume and intensity for twenty-five years, 
which pervaded every. domain of life and hence not even a 
theological school could expect exemption. 

If the periods of civil strife and reconstruction at the South 
are to be called a time “which tried men’s souls,” then there 
would seem to be some propriety in designating the twenty years 
or more of antecedent agitation as a time when “judgment had 
fled to brutish beasts and men had lost their reason.” 


X. 
A NEW ELEMENT IN THE CONTROVERSY. 


It was evident that it would be only a question of time be- 
fore these matters would be the subject of serious consideration 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 77 
in the meetings of the trustees. In fact they had already been 
the theme of such consideration, the trustees from both sides of 
the Ohio uniting their labors and prayers for the success of the 
school. Whatever undercurrent of suspicion and antagonism 
may have existed, there was no manifestation of it until the 
quarterly meeting of the board in September of 1847. It came 
about in this wise: 

During the summer of that year, rumors were afloat to the 
effect that the Ohio trustees were discussing the feasibility of 
moving the Institute across the river. Abolitionism was openly 
charged against the Institute and likewise so against the Bap- 
tist church at Covington. One of the Northern students was 
threatened with a club because he was merely suspected of being 
an abolitionist, threats were also made against the Institute 
and the president, and feeling in the town became so intense 
that Rev. J. M. Frost, the pastor of the Baptist church preached 
a sermon on satanic influence, in which he defended “the In- 
stitute and the church against the charge of abolitionism or any 
sectional tendency whatever.” ‘The subject of the sermon is 
clearly indicative of the source to which Dr. Frost would at- 
tribute the ill feeling at that time beginning to manifest itself 
in no uncertain way. Not long after Mr. Frost had made this 
public defense of the Institute, he was surprised to hear Dr. 
Pattison say that it was in vain to make further appeals to the 
South, and henceforth he would look to the North for students 
and for support. When to this Mr. Frost replied that it would 
be impossible to carry on in Covington an Institute wholly 
Northern, the answer of Dr. Pattison was, “then we must go 
where we can; we must move it over the river.” Mr. Frost again 
replying: “I don’t believe you can sell and move the Institute,” 
Dr. Pattison answered that he had looked into the matter, 
“accompanying the expression with a significant nod of the 
head, showing clearly that it was no new thought with him.” 
Mr. Frost communicated this conversation to the other trustees 
residing in Covington. Upon investigation they were con- 
vinced of the desire of the Ohio trustees to move the Institute 
across the river and therefore determined to bring together all 


78 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


the Kentucky trustees at the approaching meeting of the board 
in September and make an attempt “‘to place the institution on 
a basis which would prevent the intended perversion and in- 
Justice.” At this meeting which was held September 20, 1847, 
the Kentucky trustees submitted their complaints to the board 
and asked that two resolutions be passed—first, that the number 
of trustees in Cincinnati and Covington be equalized; and, 
second, “that an executive committee be appointed to whose 
care the whole property connected with the Institute, its man- 
agement and sale, he confided.” At this time Kentucky and 
Ohio each had seven trustees. Of the Kentucky trustees four 
lived in Covington and three in the interior, while all the Ohio 
trustees lived in Cincinnati. As the acting board was composed 
ot the Cincinnati and Covington trustees, it was easy to see 
the purpose of the first resolution. The second resolution was 
designed to prevent the sale of the property of the Institute 
and its removal from Covington. Both resolutions were defeat- 
ed. The Cincinnati trustees felt that they were entitled to a 
majority in the board, inasmuch as they had “enjoyed, undis- 
turbed and unaided, the almost exclusive privilege of bearing 
the heavy burden connected with acquiring the property and 
laying foundations of the Institute.” They also opposed the 
second resolution on business principles and “disowned ex- 
plicitly and emphatically any such design” as had been at- 
tributed to them by the Kentucky trustees. One of the seven 
Cincinnati trustees was absent from the city at this meeting, 
and the detention by sickness of one of the Kentucky trustees 
alone prevented the latter from having a majority in the board. 

The Kentucky trustees failing to accomplish their object at 
this meeting of the board, the Baptist General Association of 
Kentucky now intervened and sought to bring about an ad- 
justment of affairs which would prevent the perversion of the 
Institute and its transfer from the state. At its annual meeting 
that year a committee was appointed consisting of Thos. Y. 
Payne, D, R. Campbell and J. M. Frost who should confer with 
the trustees at the quarterly meeting in December, and pro- 
cure an amicable and satisfactory adjustment of affairs. The 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 79 


Cincinnati trustees being informed of this action of the As- 
sociation “held a meeting for consultation by themselves and 
determined it to be sternly necessary as a measure of safety to 
elect new trustees so as to restore the majority to Ohio.” This 
was done at a called meeting of the board, October 23, at which 
four new trustees were elcted—three from Cincinnati and one 
from the interior of Kentucky, “seventy or eighty miles distant, 
two other suitable nominations in the vicinity of Covington 
having been rejected.” The acting board now stood as fol- 
lows: Ten in Cincinnati and three in Covington. 

On the 20th of December the board assembled in regular 
session and the following resolutions, with an appropriate 
preamble, were submitted by the committee from the Kentucky 
General Association : 


“Resolved, first, We the trustees and faculty (some of the 
trustees being slave-holders) are associated together on terms 
of the most perfect social and moral equality, for the pro- 
motion of ministerial education and that whatever may be our 
sentiments on the subject of slavery as it now exists in the 
United States and whether any one or more of the trustees or 
faculty of this institution be slave-holders, it shall not in the 
least affect our Christian fellowship, nor the cordial co-operation 
of the trustees and faculty of the Western Baptist Theological 
Institute located at Covington, Ky. Resolved, Second, That an 
equal number of trustees to control and direct said Institute 
shall be appointed in the two positions or sections of the coun- 
try, denominated as North and South. Resolved, Third, That 
any member of the trustees or faculty may associate either 
with the Baptist Missionary Union or the Southern Baptist 
Convention, or any similar society North or South, for mission- 
ary purposes, without affecting in the least his relation or 
standing with the officers of the Institute. Resolved, Fourth, 
To give the friends North and South the most perfect assurances 
that the Institute shall be conducted according to the foregoing 
principles of perfect equality ; it is hereby agreed that whenever 
any of the trustees or faculty of the institution shall depart 
from the above principles, he shall thereby forfeit his place in 


80 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


said institution, and another may be selected in his place in 
pursuance of the charter. Resolved, Fifth, That the trustees 
and faculty of said institution shall subscribe to the above 
principles of equality, and the same shall be spread upon the 
records of the institution and incorporated into the charter.” 
The committee having presented these resolutions ‘‘assured the 
board repeatedly that they were not wedded to them in the 
exact form in which they were drawn up” and that they would 
yield to any alteration of them provided their general spirit be 
preserved. 

A committee, consisting of three from Cincinnati and two 
from Kentucky, was appointed to report on the resolutions a 
month hence. The committee was not able to agree and as a 
result two reports were submitted. The report of the majority 
presented by the Cincinnati trustees recommended that the 
resolution of the committee from the General Association of 
Kentucky be not adopted. It will be best here to let the com- 
mittee speak in its own words. “The first proposition, calling 
_ fora declaration of the moral equality of slave-holders and non- 
slave-holders, seems indefinite and, at least, capable of such an 
interpretation as to render it liable to serious objection.” 

“The second proposition, asking an equal number of trus- 
tees South and North, calls for a change which your committee 
are not prepared to recommend for adoption. Several main 
considerations seem to your committee abundantly sufficient 
to justify allowing the majority of the resident trustees to 
remain as it has ever been. The large majority of numbers 
and influence is in Cincinnati. The location of the Institute 
on the soil, among the people and under the laws of Kentucky, 
may with propriety, be counterbalanced in this way. The chief 
burden of labor, expense and responsibility hitherto borne by 
those in Cincinnati, gives a claim which did not at first exist to 
a majority.” 

“To the third proposition your committee perceive no ob- 
jection.” 

“The fourth proposition contemplates impeachment, trial, 
condemnation and all without laying down or referring to any 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 81 


law or naming any tribunal. Its adoption in its present form 
would expose us as a board to inextricable difficulties at every 
step. We cannot recommend it.” 

“The fifth proposition will be of no account without the 
preceding. Comment upon it is waived.” 

The adoption of this report submitted by the Northern side 
of the committee ruled the minority report presented by Drs. 
Campbell and Frost out of consideration. The president of the 
_ board however, out of courtesy, decided that it might be dis- 
cussed in sections. As the resolutions of the Kentucky General 
Association were a part of the minority report, they accordingly 
came up for discussion. The first two resolutions were the 
most important, and consequently elicited prolonged discussion. 
One of the Cincinnati trustees moved to amend the first by 
taking out the clause ‘some of the trustees being slave-holders” 
and then spoke in favor of its adoption. This was stoutly op- 
posed by Dr. Pattison, who was present and participated in the 
proceedings. More interest was centered around the second 
resolution which asked an equal number of trustees, not from 
Kentucky and Ohio, nor from Covington and Cincinnati, but 
from the two sections denominated North and South. The dis- 
cussion of this resolution evoked in its behalf the cordial sup- 
port of two of the Cincinnati brethren—Trevor and Bevan. 
Trevor’s appeal to the board was particularly pointed. He 
insisted that the resolution was fair and reasonable, that it 
simply asked that the South have an equal voice with the 
North, that there was no slavery in it, and no objection, that he 
could see, to it. Trevor voted with the South on the first and 
both Trevor and Bevan with the South on the second. Both 
resolutions being rejected, there was no discussion on the remain- 
ing three, as they were, without the first and second, unimpor- 
tant. Having failed again to secure the recognition for which 
they asked, the Kentucky trustees now desired the Cincinnati 
trustees to declare “what they would regard a just and honor- 
able compromise of the difficulty.” 

It was at this jucture in the proceedings that Dr. Pattison 
signified to the Kentucky members that their object could not 


82 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


be attained, that he had “made up his mind to carry on the 
institution without the South” and suggested to them that 
they “encourage the movement to erect a Southern institution 
in Tennessee or Mississippi, around which all the Southern fire 
will gather and leave us alone here.” 

Thus the Kentucky trustees had made two ineffectual at- 
tempts to secure what, in their opinion, belonged to them, and 
now turned to what seemed to them their last resouree—the 
Legislature of the State of Kentucky. This body was now in 
session anid as it ‘had reserved the right to “alter, amend or 
repeal” the charter of the institution whenever it should deem 
proper to do so, they determined to apply to it for a redress of 
their wrongs. They accordingly sought and obtained an 
amendment to the charter which transferred the entire man- 
agement of the Institute from Ohio to Kentucky. Section one 
of the amendment provided that sixteen new members be 
added to the board; section two provided that all subsequent 
trustees be citizens of Kentucky, and section three provided that 
no sale of any part of the estate of the Institute be allowed, 
save at a regular meeting of the trustees: a majority of whom 
should be present and a majority concurring therein. This 
amendment was approved January 28, 1848, just eleven days 
after the last meeting of the board. 


The Kentucky trustees pursued the above course without 
apprising the Cincinnati trustees of their design. They felt 
that they were under no obligations to do this for two reasons: 
First they had resisted all efforts for a compromise and declared 
that they had no concessions to make; and second, by virtue 
of the power vested in them «as a board, had they been informed 
of the plan to seek legislative interference, they could have 
nullified all the vacancies in: the board with citizens of Cin- 
cinnati, and could have made such other arrangement as would 
have practically nullified the action of the Legislature. Beyond 
not apprising the Ohio trustees of their purpose, the Kentucky 
trustees disclaimed any idea of secrecy. Their application to 
the Legislature was received and disposed of in the usual way 
with no attempt at concealment. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 83 


pis 
DOCUMENTARY PROOF. 


The action of the Kentucky trustees in thus assuming entire 
control over the Institute did not receive flattering support 
from the South in so far as that could be divined from the 
religious press. Many of the papers preserved a severe silence, 
deeming the matter too important to be discussed with a limited 
knowledge of the facts at their disposal. The S. W. Baptist 
Chronicle, published in New Orleans, deplored their action, 
while well-meant as none the less “premature and unjustifiable.” 

The Baptist Banner, of Louisville, greeted it with cheerful 
acquiescence and thought that the Kentucky trustees were to 
be commended for the performance of the task assigned them. 
According to Editor Buck’s statement, the General Association 
of Kentucky instructed its committee to compromise matters 
if possible and in case they failed ‘“‘they were instructed to apply 
to the Legislature and to have the charter so amended that a 
majority, at least, of the trustees should be resident citizens of 
Kentucky.” So it seems that the Dora! Association is in 
part responsible for the action. 

The Kentucky trustees would hardly have assumed a task 
of such delicacy without first seeking the advice of their breth- 
ren of the General Association. That they did seek it and that 
they did what was expected of them, seems reasonably certain 
from the statement of Mr. Buck. The action of the General 
Association held in Danville in the autumn of 1847 did not 
authorize the committee in so many words, to seek the aid of 
the Legislature, but it did require of them “to adopt such 
measures as may be necessary to make said Institution effectual 
in carrying out the objects of the charter for the Baptists of this 
state upon the plan and basis upon which it was chartered by 
Kentucky.” 

In view therefore of the above resolution of the General As- 
sociation and of the statement of editor Buck, it would seem 


84 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


that there was an understanding between the Kentucky trustees 
and the leading men of the Association that the interference of 
the Legislature was to be sought, should other means prove 
unavailing. 

The Northern papers, as was to be expected, condemned it 
severely; although the tone of some, e.g., The New York Re- 
corder, was mild and reserved, yet their mildness was not to be 
construed as implying the least approval of Kentucky’s course. 
The complaint of the Kentucky trustees had been that although 
they had representation in the board, yet the majority of the 
board being from Ohio, the entire control of the institution was 
virtually theirs. The recent amendment to the charter, secured 
by the Kentuckians, had completely dispossessed the Ohio trus- 
tees, and thus the former made themselves guilty of the same 
act with which they had so persistently charged the latter. ‘Of 
this mode of reciprocation,” says editor Buck, ‘our brethren 
cannot complain because they are treated just as they have 
treated the South.” However, the Kentucky trustees in the 
statement that they set forth in vindication of their course, 
announced it to be their intention “as soon as our rights were 
secured and respected,” to repeal that clause in the amendment 
enacting that all future elections for trustees shall be confined 
to citizens of Kentucky. 

They also said that it was their purpose at the quarterly 
meeting in March “to adjust the whole affair so as to show the 
world that they sought only their rights and these rights 
sacredly respected.” At this meeting, though, the Ohio trustees 
refused to recognize the Kentucky trustees, insisted that the 
legal rights in the case were on their side and sib no adjust- 
ment occurred. 


It has been stated that the occasion for legislative inter- 
ference on the part of the Kentucky trustees lay in their dis- 
covery of an alleged design on the part of the Ohioans to sell the 
property of the Institute and, with the proceeds, establish an- 
other school across the river. The rumors to that effect which 
were afloat during the summer of 1847, and the conversation 
between Dr. Pattison and J. M. Frost, has been recorded above. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 85 


It now remains to substantiate those with documentary proof. 
At the quarterly meeting in September of 1847, when the Ken- 
tucky trustees made known to their Ohio brethren of the board, 
the report which had come to them concerning the design for 
the sale and removal of the Institute, ‘‘the Cincinnati trustees 
disavowed explicitly and emphatically any such design and all 
knowledge of any such measure.”’ That the subject of removal 
though had been a serious one with Dr. Pattison, is shown by 
the following: In a letter addressed by him to Dr. Lynd of 
St. Louis and bearing the date of September 1, 1847, occur the 
following sentences: “‘Nor do I believe that it is possible for 
North and South to co-operate in any public enterprise.” “If this 
were given up to the South, I have no idea they would sustain 
it, even if every trustee on the other side of the river should 
resign and give them the whole control. But if they were will- 
ing to do so, would it be right?” “Supposing but one party to 
have the property, to whom does it in equity belong?” “It 
strikes me that the people of the North did all the work and 
complimented the South with half the honor.” 

In another letter dated Septemebr 18, 1847, addressed to 
Dr. Lynd, is the following: ‘The only question is, if the In- 
stitute is rejected by the South and Southwest, ‘have the trus- 
tees a right, I mean a moral right, as I know they have a legal 
one, to remove the property and site across the river to Cin- 
cinnati?” In a postscript to the same letter is found the fol- 
lowing: “This is an excellent place for a literary institution. 
Suppose we should leave the building and enough ground for 
premises, and the cemetery, which would be an annual income 
of from five to ten hundred dollars, and take the remainder, 
say $80,000, would this be right? First place, the theological 
school is of no use to this place, nor to Kentucky with their 
present feelings; but a literary institution is greatly needed and 
might be made of much value to the Baptists of the West.” 

At the time of this correspondence with Dr. Lynd, Dr. Pat- 
tison was also corresponding with J. M. Peck on the condition 
and prospects for the Institute, and gives expression to the 
same views on removal. In a letter written by him to J. M. 


86 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


Peck, and bearing the date, September 13, 1847, we find the fol- 
lowing: ‘The question is, who is to have this property and 
institution? Both cannot have it. In this, I believe, all here 
are agreed. The first question is, if one only can have it, to 
whom does it belong?” “The question is, then, if we can 
legally, would it be right to translate it? Mississippi and Ala- 
bama have given about $2,500—that could be refunded if 
requested. Do you say that a division would be right?” “Would 
it be right to give the South the building for a literary school 
and some lands for small endowment? I wish to do right, 
but we cannot sit still and see this great institution of good 
broken into pieces wantonly.” 

Whether the Cincinnati trustees shared with Dr. Pattison 
this interest in sale and removal— we do not pretend to say. 
But that one of them did—J. Stevens—is evident from a letter 
written by him to Dr. Pattison in June 1848, in which he 
stated that the sale and removal of the Institute had been dis- 
cussed by them, but that said sale and removal were to be 
effected only “by mutual agreement of its friends, both North- 
west and Southwest.” 

The Kentucky trustees charged the Ohio trustees with @ 
design to sell the Institute to Catholics. This the Ohio trustees 
denied. The financial agent, Mr. Sage, admitted that he 
offered to sell to Bishop Purcell such lots as had been desig- 
nated for sale to any purchasers, in order to provide the In- 
stitute with the necessary funds; but denied positively that this 
offer included the Institute buildings or any of the ground 
reserved for its permanent use. To this statement and denial 
of Mr. Sage, the Kentucky trustees offered the following certifi- 
cate: “I certify that a gentleman whom I took to be a clergy- 
man connected with the Baptist college or seminary in Coying- 
ton, called on me several months ago, and asked me to pur- 
chase the College and a portion of the adjoining grounds.” This 
was dated March 15, 1848, and signed by John D. Pursell, 
Bishop of Cincinnati. 

Of the same tenor as the above is the followling signed by 
C..H. Harwood, a reputable citizen of Cincinnati. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 87 


“This is to certify that more than a year ago, the Rev. O. 
N. Sage, agent for the Baptist college in Covington, told me 
that, if the college was not sustained, they should move it to 
Cincinnati. In fact, says he, (in that event) we have been 
already looking out a site to erect the buildings. He requested 
me to keep it a secret, as it would not do to talk about at that 
time; and in accordance to that request, I never told out of my 
family, until I heard that a part of the trustees, agents, etc., 
were trying to dispose of it to the Catholics. I then thought it 
my duty to communicate it to friends of the college and I did 
so to a Baptist brother in Covington. 
“Given under my hand, in Cincinnati, the 17th of March 
1843. 
(Signed) “C. H. HARWOOD.” 


In view of the above the Kentucky trustees believed that 
they had indisputable proof of a design on the part of their 
Cincinnati brethern to sell and remove the Institute and hence 
their recourse to the Kentucky Legislature. It was the conten- 
tion of the Ohio trustees that the Kentucky trustees had not 
invested in the Institute a sufficient amount of labor and money 
to justify them in having equal representation in the board 
with them and that the majority held in the board by them 
was counter-balanced by the location of the Institute on Ken- 
tucky soil. That the Kentucky trustees took no interest in the 
enterprise, does not by any means appear. That the Ohio trus- 
tees from the inception of the enterprise in 1833 to the un- 
fortunate occurrences of 1848, bore the burden of the Institute 
is very apparent. The relation which they sustained to their 
brethren in Kentucky and in the Southwest was not unlike 
that which existed between Baptists North and South in the 
Triennial Convention. It was plain that Northern men and 
money were in the ascendency in the councils of that body, but 
that they were willing that the Southern Baptists co-operate 
with them as far as they could. That Ohio men and means 
were the dominant forces in the establishment of this theo- 
logical school for the Baptists of the West is quite clear, yet 


88 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


they invited the co-operation of the Southwest by placing the 
Institute among them and giving them a representation com- 
mensurate with their efforts in its behalf. If, after the Ken- 
tucky trustees came into possession of the Institute, we are to 
believe their declaration of a purpose to yield the supremacy 
as soon as their rights were respected, we must also give credence 
to the assertion of the Cincinnati trustees that it was never their 
purpose to retain permanently the ascendency in the board. 
They had launched the enterprise and regarded it as their 
duty to remain at the helm until the tentative stage was passed. 
The money with which to effect the purchase of land in 1835 
was secured from a Northern man and the loan was negotiated 
by Northern men living in Cincinnati. 

The two financial agents who at different times saved the 
enterprise from its pecuniary embarrassment were Northern 
men. 

When the Institute opened in 1845, there were some in 
Cincinnati who subscribed $50 a year for three years so as to 
insure the salary of the president, though not all of it was 
paid; and also $900 was donated at different times by Cin- 
cinnati friends for the support of the faculty so as to save the 
property from being sold at a sacrifice. To this must be added 
the donation of $1,750 for services rendered as financial agent 
by E. Robins. In 1837 Mr. Robins living in Cincinnati was 
engaged as financial agent of the property, and, though doing 
business in Cincinnati, he took up his residence on the Institute 
property for reasons that are obvious. During this period of five 
years or more he continued his business in Cincinnati, main- 
tained his church relation there and on resigning his position 
as manager of the property, donated the board his salary 
as stated above and moved back to Cincinnati. Because of his 
residence in Covington, the Kentucky trustees claimed his do- 
nation should be placed to their account. This the reader can 
decide. 

It will be remembered that prior to the opening of the In- 
stitute, two agents were engaged to solicit funds in its behalf 
in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. While so employed, 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 89 


these agents collected a sum sufficient to pay their salaries and 
traveling expenses which amounted to $2,500. These three 
states therefore were, to that extent, benefactors of the In- 
stitute, and the Kentucky trustees naturally regarded them- 
selves as the guardians of their interests. But there is no 
evidence that these Southern states advised the Kentuckians to 
seek redress from their state Legislature nor that they con- 
curred in it after it had been obtained. 

The Kentucky trustees also claimed that three citizens of 
Covington subscribed $100 per annum for three years towards 
the president’s salary, but that it was never paid because it 
was not called for. 

The only cash contributed that came to the Institute from 
Kentucky were $10 from Hon. C. Johnson in 1835 and $5 
from T. S. Malcom, a Northern Baptist minister, residing at 
the time in Louisville. With a knowledge of these facts the 
Ohio trustees questioned the fairness of Kentucky’s demand 
to equal representation ‘and also reprobated the act by which 
she gained entire control. 


XII. 
A STORMY SESSION. 


The Cincinnati trustees being informed of the nature and 
contents of the amendment to the charter of the Institute con- 
sulted together as to the course to be pursued by them at the 
approaching quarterly meeting of the board in March. The 
main question was: Should they give their assent to the 
amended charter. Their decision was not to accept the amend- 
ment, and for the following reasons: First, they regarded it as 
illegal; second, if legal, it was morally wrong and, third, the 
result of its acceptance “would be to sever the Institute en- 
tirely and permanently from the sympathies and confidences 
of the whole Northwest.’ They also prepared a protest to be 
read should their efforts to prevent its acceptance be unavailing. 


90 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


The quarterly meeting of the board held March 20, 1848, 
brought together all the members of the old board and almost 
all the new trustees were likewise present. In accordance with ~ 
their previous resolution, the Ohio trustees voted not to accept 
the amendment. Seeing that they were outnumbered they pro- 
posed to the Kentucky trustees the appointment of a com- 
mission to arbitrate the matters in dispute. This being refused, 
they then proposed a General Convention of Western Baptists 
to which the case should be submitted. This too, was rejected, 
as was also their third and last request that both the old and new 
members spend an hour in conference with a view to devise 
some plan of adjustment. An attempt was then made to read 
the protest of the Ohio trustees but this was interrupted. All 
hope of adjustment being removed one of the Northern trustees 
said: ‘“‘Gentlemen, if you can afford in this manner to take the 
Institute, we can as well afford to lose it.” 


After adjournment the Kentucky members, old and new: 
formed a separate board and sent a committee to Dr. Pattison 
and Prof. Robinson requesting them to recognize their 
authority or else retire at the close of the session in June. They 
chose to retire. Prof. Robinson said to them: “I have known 
something of violent abolitionists in the North and by the grace 
of God have succeeded in keeping them at arm’s length. All 
you have to do is to change places with that kind of man 
to change characters with them. I have no disposition to 
work with either class.” Instantly the six Kentuckians jump- 
ed to their feet. They were indignant and the young professor 
was no less so. 

In taking our leave of these two gentlemen, suffice it to say 
that Dr. Pattison went from Covington to a professorship in 
Newton Theological Seminary, while Prof. Robinson became 
pastor for four years of the Ninth Street Baptist church in 
Cincinnati, succeeding the eloquent though erratic Magoon. 

Mr. Sage, the financial agent of the Institute, was summarily 
dismissed form his office and was requested to deliver to the 
Kentucky trustees all papers which concerned the business of 
the Institute. This he refused to do but instead committed them 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 91 


to the president of the old board. This action of his occasioned 
a law suit which resulted in favor of the Kentucky trustees. Mr. 
Gorman, the steward, who had been in charge of the Institute 
building, was directed by the Ohio trustees to keep posséssion. 
The Kentucky trustees took out a writ of ejectment, and this 
caused another legal action which was also decided in their 
favor. Mr. Gorman accordingly retired from the premises, 
leaving the doors barred. Mr. Sage, being requested to turn over 
the keys of the college building to the new board “stated that 
he had none and supposed that the outside door keys were lost.” 
This made it necessary for the Kentuckians to use force so 
as to effect an entrance and also explains an item in the minutes 
of the executive and financial board, dated June 23, 1848: 
‘Ordered that the secretary procure bolts for the north doors 
and locks for the south doors of the halls of the college build- 
ing, and report the cost of bolts and locks. 


XIII. 
A NEW START. 


The Kentucky trustees now had entire control of the Insti- 
tute and announced it to be their purpose to administer their 
trust in accordance with the policy of its founders—i.e., with 
out discrimination in regard to slavery. They also declared 
that it was their intention, as soon as litigation ceased, to 
repeal that article of the amendment providing for a majority 
of Kentucky trustees on the board. 

The Kentuckians believed that the Institute, a majority of 
the trustees being from Ohio, was being diverted from the ends 
for which it was founded; and to prevent further diversion, 
they sought and obtained legislative interference. But they 
also declared that; as soon as the Institute in their opinion 
was safe, the North should have equal representation with them. 

The Ohio trustees having received an adverse decision in 


92 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 


the local courts, had appealed their case to the Supreme Court of 
Kentucky and hence the Kentucky trustees could not feel sure 
of their position until the higher court had rendered its de- 
cision. 

The withdrawal of Dr. Pattison and Prof. Robinson left the 
Institute without a theological faculty. Prof. Asa. Drury who 
had the chair of Greek and was also in charge of the literary 
department accepted the authority of the new board and was 
retained. 

Dr. Richard Fuller was offered the presidency at a salary 
of $1,500 per annum anda home. Prof. J. L. Reynolds, of 
Richmond, Va., was sought for as professor of Biblical Litera- 
ture and Interpretation at a salary of $1,000 and a home. The 
declination of both these made it necessary to seek elsewhere 
and accordingly Drs. S. W. Lynd and Duncan R. Campbell were 
secured for the presidency and professorship respectively. 

Much was expected of Dr. Lynd as president. He had been 
eminently successful as a pastor in Cincinnatti for fifteen years, 
his disposition was pacific and conciliatory and he was thor- 
oughly acquainted with the affairs of the Institute, being the 
chairman of the board from its organization to his removal to 
St. Louis. At the time of his election he was editor of The 
Western Watchman of St. Louis and also pastor of one of the 
churches there. An anti-slavery man, he was not regarded by 
the Kentuckians as an abolitionist though there were some 
of Northern sympathies who sought to create dissatisfaction 
with him alleging that his anti-slavery views were of a very pro- 
nounced character. 

Dr. Campbell was a learned Scotchman who had been a 
Presbyterian pastor in his native land. Coming to America, 
he became a Baptist, was baptized by Dr. Jeter in Richmond, 
where for a few years he was the pastor of Leigh Street Baptist 
church. Failing health brought him to Kentucky and at the 
time of his election to the professorship he was pastor of the 
church at Georgetown. 

The Literary Department of the Institute opened as usual in 
September under the control of Prof. Drury. The Theological 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 93 


Department opened in January 1849, Dr. Lynd not being 
able to leave St. Louis until that time. During that half ses- 
sion there was only one student of theology enrolled. The next 
session, 1849-50, saw nine students in the Department of The- 
ology, as did also the following session, 1850-51. In addition 
to the nine of this session, there were also nine in the Literary 
Department, making a total of eighteen theological students 
for that session. It was during this session that E. J. Owen, 
a native of New York and a graduate of Georgetown, became 
a member of the faculty as adjunct professor of Greek and 
Hebrew. The Literary Department of the Institute was only 
a preparatory school, making no pretension whatever to the 
exercise of college functions. With the close of the session 
1850-51, the preparatory feature was abolished, possibly out 
of deference to the Academy of Georgetown College with which 
it had no desire to conflict. With the discontinuance of the 
Preparatory Department there were instituted full college 
courses in English, Latin, Greek and Mathematics which were 
also offered to the students in conjunction with their theological 
studies. During the next session, 1851-52, there were twenty- 
five students of theology of whom five were graduates. 


It will be observed that there was an increase of students 
each year under the new regime. However, during the next 
session, 1852-53, there were only seventeen enrolled. This 
decline may be attributed to the feeling of uncertainty caused 
by the litigation which was now in progress. It will be remem- 
bered that in the spring of ’48, the Kentucky trustees insti- 
tuted legal proceedings against Mr. Sage, the financial agent of 
the Institute, to secure possession of all papers relative to the 
business of the Institute. This suit was decided in the local 
courts against Mr. Sage. The case had been appealed to the 
Supreme Court of Kentucky, was now before that tribunal and 
a decision was being daily expected. On the 23rd of February, 
1858, the decision came and the result was a reversal of the 
decision of the lower court. The decision was rendered by 
Justice Crenshaw who held “that the Legislature had not the 
power under the right reserved ‘to alter, amend or repeal’ the 


94 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


act of incorporation, to force upon the board ‘of old trustees 
without their consent additional trustees. Such an exercise of 
power is not within the scope of the authority reserved ‘to 
alter, amend or repeal,’ but is an attempt to associate with the 
corporation persons whom they are not willing to accept, and 
thus, in effect, make a new contract by introducing new parties 
to an existing contract, without the consent and contrary to 
the will of a part of the original contracting parties. The act 
of the Legislature creating, without the consent of the board, 
additional trustees is held to be unconstitutional.” The style 
of the case is Sage vs. Dillard and is reported in Vol. 15. Ben 
Monroe Reports. 


XIV. 
AGREEING TO DISAGREE. 


The decision recorded above put the control of the Institute 
again into the hands of the old board, a majority of which 
were Northern men. Even now it seemed as if litigation would 
continue. The Kentucky trustees moved a reopening of the 
case in the Court of Appeals, while the Ohio trustees were pre- 
paring by process of law to exact from the new board an ac- 
count of their stewardship which the Appellate Court had 
declared to be unconstitutional and void. A strong element, 
however, which was making for peace and for a fair division of 
the property of the Institute, finally triumphed. This was 
due in large measure to the magnanimity of Ebenezer Lane, a 
Baptist attorney whose benefactions had furnished a name 
for the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. He was the 
counsel of the Northern trustees in their contemplated suit: 
against the Kentucky trustees but generously agreed for the 
sake of peace and Christian fellowship “to waive the suit for 
which he had long been laying the foundation at much ex- 
pense, anxiety and pecuniary hazard, and in conesquence to 
him, in case of successful issue, of which the prospects were 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 95 


favorable.” Both parties assented to arbitration and chose 
Justice McLean of the Supreme Court of the United States as 
arbitrator. After hearing the case, he decided that the property 
should be divided equally between the contending parties. This 
agreement was reached September 20, 1853, and was ratified by 
an act of the Kentucky Legislature January 28, 1854. ‘This 
amendment gave to the old board full power to make all sales, 
full power to change the location from Covington to George- 
town, provided 'a majority of the trustees south of the Ohio 
concur, and repealed the unconstitutional section of the charter 
as amended in 1848. At this time $250,000 would have been 
a fair estimate of the value of the property. Large sums of 
money, though had been borrowed by both the old and new 
boards, and when these, with the accumulated interest, had 
been refunded, together with taxes, attorney’s fees and the 
necessary expense incident to the closing up of a large estate 
it is evident that the above amount would be much reduced. 

The library of the Institute went to Granville College, now 
Denison University. The Northern trustees used their half 
in promoting the Fairmount Theological Seminary at Cin- 
cinnati. This institution, like its predecessor, gave promise of 
much usefulness, but after a career of four or five years it 
encountered financial reverses and went out of existence. 

The Southern trustees proposed to apply their portion to 
the establishment of the Institute at Georgetown in connection 
with the college located there; and from now on until 1890 our 
information concerning it is to be largely derived from the 
catalogues of the college. The proceeds of the Covington prop- 
erty not being presently available, the authorities of the col- 
lege agreed to supply the means with which to start anew the 
work of the Institute. After a suspension of eight months, 
perhaps in January 1854, the Institute resumed operation with 
Dr. Lynd as Professor of Theology, assisted by Dr. Campbell, 
who in the summer of 1852 had resigned his Covington pro- 
fessorship to accept the presidency of Georgetown College. The 
arrangement seemed. to be a happy one. The Institute was 
subject to no expense for buildings, the students enjoyed free 


96 TEE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


tuition in the college, if they desired it, and Dr. Campbell offer- 
ed his services free of all charge as long as the funds of the 
Institute were unavailable. The only expense, therefore, was 
to provide for the salary of Dr. Lynd. Thus matters went on 
till the summer of ’56, when Dr. Lynd withdrew. During he 
session of ’56-57 “vigorous efforts were made to reopen the 
Institute permanently at Georgetown” and meanwhile the only 
instruction given was that in Hebrew and Theology by Dr. 
Campbell. The catalogue of ’57-58 announces that the In- 
stitute “was permanently opened at Georgetown last Septem- 
ber.” The faculty now consists of D. R. Campbell and N. M. 
Crawford, the former teaching Biblical and Pastoral Theology, 
the latter Hebrew and Exegetical Theology. After serving one 
year, Dr. Crawford retired and was succeeded by Rev. George 
Hunt, A.M. This arrangement continued till the summer of 
61, the attendance averaging about twelve students per ses- 
sion. Both college and Institute suspended the first two years 
of the civil war, but were in operation the last two. The eata- 
logues for those two years simply announce that “the connec- 
tion of the college with the Western Baptist Theological Insti- 
tute will enable students to prosecute their studies simulta- 
neously in both.” No professors of theology are named, and 
doubtless the arrangement, if any, was such as obtained during 
the session of 756-57. 

During the next five years Dr. Crawford is president of the 
college, and he, with Cadwallader Lewis and later with Henry 
McDonald, constitutes the faculty of theology. The cata- 
logues for this period are silent as to the number of theological 
students. A catalogue of ’70-71 bearing Dr. Manly’s name has 
a foot note, presumably in his handwriting, to the effect that 
“no regular course in theology is taught. All the young men 
having the ministry in view are pursuing academic or colle- 
giate studies.” In ’71 Dr. Basil Manly became president of the 
college and he and Dr. Henry McDonald composed the faculty 
of theology. For the first three years of Dr. Manly’s incum- 
beney there seems to have been a revival of interest in the 
work of the Institute. During the session of ’72-73 there were 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 97 


twenty-four students enrolled and the next session there were 
twenty-six. For the next five years each catalogue contains 
only a small paragraph setting forth the connection between 
the Institute and the college. In ’79 Dr. Manly returns to his 
professorship in the Seminary at Louisville and from that time 
on no mention is made of theological instruction in the college 
nor of any connection between it and the Institute. 

What disposition must be made of the funds of the Insti- 
tute? Shortly after the rupture between the Ohio and Ken- 
tucky trustees in ’48, and when the new board was in sore need 
of funds for the prosecution of the work of the Institute, the 
trustees of Georgetown College at their regular meeting in 
June, 1848, recorded their “greatest solicitude for the pros- 
perity of the Institute” and their willingness ‘‘to loan said In- 
stitute any sum of money” under their control, “provided it 
be well secured and the interest paid punctually every six 
months.” Shortly thereafter an agreement was made between 
the trustees of the Institute and of the Kentucky Baptist Edu- 
cation Society by means of which all collections made for the 
society in this vicinity should be used by the Institute, pro- 
vided the interest on the same be promptly paid. 

In accordance with this arrangement it was not long before 
the Institute had procured more than $5,000 from the society 
and there is reason to believe that the interest was not always 
promptly paid. It must also be remembered that, for years 
after the removal of the Institute to Georgetown, the salary 
of the theological professors was paid out of the treasury of the 
college, and in addition to the growing indebtedness to Georg¢- 
town College, there was also a depreciation in value of some of 
the holdings of the Institute. 

It was therefore evident that, when a final disposition of 
the affairs of the Institute was made, the college would be a 
preferred and perhaps the only creditor. The denominational 
press in the early fifties shows that there were not wanting 
those who were disposed to resent the alliance of the Institute 
which was intended for the entire Southwest, with ‘a local in- 
stitution. But as time passed, there was manifested an increas- 


98 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


ing disposition to forget the unfortunate condition which cen- 
tered about the Institute and to permit its trustees to dispose 
of its funds in whatever way seemed good to them. 

During the session of the Kentucky Legislature of ’89-90 
an act was passed permitting the trustees of the Institute to 
transfer all the holdings of said Institute to the Kentucky Bap- 
tist Education Society. On June 11, 1890, a committee of the 
society accepted the proposition and ‘appointed another com- 
mittee to confer with a similar committee from the trustees of 
the Institute. The holdings of the Institute consisted of 226 
shares of bank stock, two mortgage notes and three individual 
notes—making a total of $39,753. Some of these however, 
were worthless. 

On June 9, 1891, the two committees met, effected the trans- 
fer and the Western Baptist Theological Institute as a ehar- 
tered institution was dissolved. 


Sic Obit. 


THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 99 


CONCLUSION. 


The property bought by the trustees of the Western Bap- 
tist Education Society seventy years ago for $33,250, is now 
worth at its lowest estimate $3,000,000. Then it was a mile 
or more from Covington, now it is in the heart of the city. 
Linden Grove Cemetery is still there, bearing the name given it 
sixty years ago. 

At the corner of 11th and Russell streets stands the home 
in which Ezekiel Gilman Robinson and later Dunean R. Camp- 
bell lived. Further down on Russell between 10th and 11th 
streets, stands the president’s home. Here Pattison and Lyna 
lived. On 11th street and below Russell stands the Theological 
Building in which learned and pious Baptist professors gave 
instruction to enthusiastic students for the Baptist ministry. It 
is now and has been since 1876 St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, under 
Catholic control, and is one of the most. imposing buildings in 
the city. . 

“Will. we ever know how much the war cost?” The war 
did not destroy the Western Baptist Theological Institute. The 
agency in its destruction was slavery and the agitation con- 
nected with it—the precursor and the occasion of civil strife. 
But when we remember the toil and the sacrifice upon which as a 
foundation this institution reposed, its unusual endowment, the 
auspicious circumstances which welcomed it into being and the 
high hopes entertained for it by its founders, the appropriate- 
ness of the question as applied to the Institute is immediately 
recognized. 

FINIS. 


100 THE WESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 


APPENDIX. 


The following is the amendment to the original charter 
which was secured by the Kentucky trustees so as to dislodge 
the Northern trustees from their control of the Institute. 

An act to amend the charter of the Western Baptist Theo- 
logical Institute at Covington, Ky. 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Com- 
monwealth of Kentucky, That the charter of the Western Bap- 
tist Theological Institute located at Covington, be amended, 
and that the board of trustees be increased in numbers to the 
number of 16 above the number now in office, and that the 
following persons are now appointed members of said board of 
trustees and clothed with power to manage, control and direct 
said Institute in conjunction with the trustees now appointed, 
to-wit: John T. Bush, H. C. Watkins, Leonard Stephens, James 
Robinson, D. R. Williams, Robert H. Ball, Thos. Y. Payne, 
Thos. Porter, Henry Wingate, Robert Scott, Arthur Peter, W. 
W. Gardner, Squire Helm, A. W. Larue, James M. Pendleton 
and Andrew Broadus. 

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That in all future appoint- 
ments of trustees under the charter, the persons appointed 
shall be citizens of Kentucky and no appointment of a trustee 
shall be made except at a regular meeting of the trustees, when 
a majority of all the trustees are present and a majority of 
said trustees concurring in said appointment. 

See. 8. Be it further enacted, That no sale shall be made 
of the estate of said Institute, or any part thereof, except the 
same be directed at a regular meeting of 'the trustees—a ma- 
jority of all the trustees being present—and a majority of all 
the trustees concurring therein. 

Approved January 28, 1848. 

Attest: W. D. Reed, Secretary of State. 

The above amendment was declared unconstitutional by 
the Supreme Court of Kentucky on February 23, 1853. 


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